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CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

 

THIS BOOK IS ONE OF
A COLLECTION MADE BY

BENNO LOEWY
1854-1919
AND BEQUEATHED TO

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

 

 

 

 
Cornell University Library

SF 307.H31

wnt An
3 1924 012 413 708

olin
TIVA FHL dOd AVM ONIMVIN

‘dun qaeyuey

 
THE COACHING AGE

BY

STANLEY HARRIS

(‘AN OLD SAGER’),
AUTHOR OF ‘OLD COACHING DAYS,

ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN STURGESS.

(Medicated by permission to the Road Club.)

 

LONDON:

RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON,
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen.
1885.
[All Rights Resroed
PREFACE.

te

Tue favourable reception accorded to my book on
‘Old Coaching Days’ has emboldened me, in the
phraseology of the road, to put on another coach,
and ask for it the same kind indulgence and patron-
age as were bestowed on my previous undertaking.

It has been my endeavour on this occasion to add
to many of the facts and circumstances narrated in
‘Old Coaching Days,’ thus rendering it more com-
plete; and a great deal of useful, and I hope interest-
ing information will be found in the following pages.

Setting out with our old Highways, some of which
were partially used by: coaches, I have proceeded to
show how our roads were improved, and the results
of such improvement as regarded increased speed
in travelling ; then, giving some account of the use
that was made of the roads, and the various persons

who managed the traffic on them, I have gone on
iv PREFACE.

 

to ‘the change,’ when railways superseded the coach-
ing system, and thus brought me into the position
of being a chronicler of reminiscences of past things
which can no longer be seen in actual existence.

I have to thank the editors of the Field and Land
and Water, for permission kindly granted me to
reprint some of my contributions to their papers.

Having now filled up ‘the way-bill,’ it only remains
to start the concern, which, as before, is worked by

Aw OLD Sracer.
1884.
CHAPTER

II.
III.

IV.

VI.
VII.
VOL

TX.

XI.
XII.
XIIL
XIV.
xy.

XVI.

CONTENTS,

THE START

. OUR HIGHWAYS

ROAD ENGINEERS
THE OLD COACHING ROADS

PROCESSION OF THE MAILS

. PIKES AND MILESTONES

CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES
COACH PROPRIETORS -
COACH PROPRIETORS (continued)

NO HORSES, NO COACHMAN

. COACHING BUSINESS

THE NEW COACH AT ST. STEPHEN’S
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS
THE POST OFFICE

EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT
COACHMEN

THE SCRATCH TEAM

PAGK
vi

CONTENTS.

 

CHAPTER
XVII.

XVIII.

XIX.

XX,

XXI.

XXII.

XXIII.

XXIV.

XXV.

BRISTOL COACHING INNS
ACCIDENTS

EDINBURGH AND ABERDEEN ‘ DEFIANCE’
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES

GENERAL

EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS

EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS (continued)
OLD STABLES ON THE ROAD

CONCLUSION

PAGE

348
357
380
388
404
423
443
455
464
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,

PAGE

MAKING WAY FOR THE MAIL Frontispiece
CHAIN SNAPPED AND COACH RAN ON THE WHEELERS 24
EXPOSED TO THE PELTING BLAST 44
PROCESSION OF MAILS ON THE KING’S BIRTHDAY 64

INSISTING ON THE QUEEN’S RIGHT—‘DRIVE THROUGH THEM,

WATSON!’ - 72
NO FOUR-HORSE HARNESS.—GUARD EXTEMPORISED AS A

JOLLY POSTBOY 124
GUIDED OUT OF LONDON BY TORCHES 146
READY TO GO—NO ONE TO DRIVE 184

SHE RATTLED AWAY WITH A CONTINUOUS VOLLEY OF

KICKS 230
RURAL POST-OFFICE 268
WITH A SPOON IN ONE HAND AND A BASIN OF SOUP IN

THE OTHER 298
LEADERS OFF THE ROAD 316

PASSENGERS WHO SAT STILL WERE UNHURT 360
viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PULLED HIS HORSES ACROSS LEADERS, DRIVING THEM UP A

STEEP BANK 368
PUT HIS EARS BACK AND KICKED AND SQUEALED VIGOROUSLY 420
464

‘LEADERS FLEW OUT OF THE ROAD IN AN INSTANT’
THE COACHING AGE.

 

THE START.

We are removed now by some one or two genera-
tions from the palmy days of coaching. Such names as
Pears, of the Southampton Coach ; Charlie Holmes, of
the Blenheim; and Vaughan, of the Cambridge ‘ Tele-
graph,’ have faded from memory, though there was a
time when to ride alongside them was a red-letter
day to the happy occupant of the box-seat. Lord
William Lennox tells us that ‘coaches were intro-
duced into England by the Earl of Arundel in 1580,
before which time Queen Elizabeth, on public occa-
sions, rode behind her chamberlain.’ That grand
Queen, who associated herself with England’s glory,
thought coaches effeminate, and yielded with reluct-
ance to the innovation.

Even after the Civil Wars were closed, and old
Oliver was at rest, coaching had made little progress.

1
2 THE COACHING AGE.

 

It was thought a great thing to get to London in two
days by a coach which left Oxford for the capital.
This eventful journey was broken at Beaconsfield.
We can imagine how, in fine weather, the country
must have been enjoyed, for progress must have been
at the rate of two or three miles an hour, and ample
time was afforded for mingling riding with walking.
In much later times it took four days to reach the
capital from York.

Between this period and the Regency, progress in
coaching was slow; the roads were bad, and highway
robbery was frequent. In Horace Walpole’s time
robbery on the road ‘had become so general, that
he wrote that if squires did not leave off shooting
partridges and take to shooting highwaymen, society
would be dissolved. Towards the close of Walpole’s
life, a Mr. John Palmer effected great reforms; and
after his time other improvements followed, which
were rendered possible by the labours of Telford and
the system of McAdam. In 1784 a coach reached
London from Bristol in one day, taking sixteen hours
for the journey, or fourteen hours from Bath. In
1836, however, the Bath coach took only eleven hours
to reach London.

It was not, indeed, until George IV. was King that
stage-coaches approached perfection. Their career,
however, in this stage, though perfect, was brief,
THE START. 3

amounting only to about twenty years, from 1820 to
1840. Perhaps the year 1836, which witnessed the
publication of ‘ Pickwick,’ wherein there is so rich a
picture of the old coaching days, was the culminating
point of the mail-coach system. Just as it was per-
fected, apparently, it was rendered useless; the rail-
way guard supplanted the stage-coach guard, and
the driver of an engine took the place of that poten-
tate of coaching days, the driver of the mail-
coach.

The speed of some of the principal mail-coaches at
their finest period was not less than ten miles an hour,
and this was in many cases, and in particular parts
of the country, exceeded. The punctuality of Mr.
Taylor’s coach, ‘The Wonder,’ from Shrewsbury, was
so great that Lord William Lennox tells us that many ;
people at St. Albans regulated their’ watches by that
coach as it entered the town. This was turning the
tables upon Time, and regulating him instead of being
regulated by him.

Only once have we to record that ‘The Wonder’.
was beaten. The author of ‘Down the Road’ tells
how the Hon. Thomas Kenyon was driven by en-
terprising postboys in trim blue jackets, ahead of ‘ The
Wonder’ all the way from Shrewsbury to London.

‘Dick,’ said his honour, standing outside the Lion
at Shrewsbury, ‘I wonder whether I could beat ‘‘ The

1—2
4 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Wonder” into town? I should like to do it if I
ean

‘Very good, your honour; I'll do my best ! and he
did, and Mr. Kenyon got to London first.

This famous coach, established in 1825, kept its
celebrity for punctuality and speed for thirteen years.
It was the first coach which undertook so long a
journey as 158 miles in one day.

The box-seat in those days was a seat of honour :
in a-good, stout double-breasted coat, and with a
good whip to handle the ribbons by your side, with
rattling-bars, and with fair weather and a fine
country, what could be more delightful! Instead of
tunnels and cuttings we had hills and dales ; one saw
the country and its inhabitants. The driver of a
coach had his privileges in those days, as the follow-
ing story, told by Lord William Lennox, will show :

‘When we stopped to change horses at Slough, I
saw the faithless Lothario [the coachman’s wife had
given him a bunch of violets at starting] present the
pretty barmaid of the Red Lion with the bunch of
violets, which she placed near her heart. Nay, more,
if my optics did not deceive me, he implanted a kiss
on the rosy lips of the blooming landlady, who
faintly exclaimed, ‘‘ For shame, you naughty man !”’

All this shows the bright side of coach-travelling ;
but there is another -picture, and one equally true.
THE START. 5

 

The outside of a coach in mid-winter, with darkness
and cold mist such as eats into the very marrow,
or with biting wind or pitiless continuous rain, is not
pleasant, and is well exchanged for the inside of a
railway carriage. What avails scenery when you can
only discern the horses’ heads through mist by aid of
the coach-lamps? Though, when the air was steady,
the night bright, and the roads firm, life on the box
was not undesirable. The little villages, with lights
shining through the diamond panes of the cottages,
the odd weird shape of the trees, the interchange of
conversation at any stoppage, were pleasant things
enough.

‘Eh, mon tod, it’s a braw fine night,
The wind’s in the west, and the moon shines bright !

Well can we remember, too, sundry hotels
famous for particular dishes, and how daintily Mrs.
Lewis of the Lion, at Shrewsbury, prepared the
mushrooms for the rump-steak. Well, too, can we
recall the monster hearth and fire at Farnborough,
where, at first unable to find our fingers to unbutton
our coats, we broke in, half frozen, on the lazy discus-
sion by some village boors of Farmer Jackson’s crops,
and how the ‘frostes’ were affecting agricultural
prospects.

How one wishes that John Leech had sketched for
6 THE COACHING AGE.

 

us some of the incidents of the 1820-40 period, as he
has so admirably depicted the sporting life of his
time, and the manners and customs of the early
Victorian era! He could be humorous without
being vulgar, delicate without being weak, satirical
without being sardonic. Never was power wielded
with more grace before or since his pencil went to
work.

In the ‘Annals of the Road’ are some excellent
descriptions of well-known coachmen. From their
association with every class, they derived a good
knowledge of human nature. They heard and re-
tailed an immense fund of good stories. The best
coacbman was not always found with the best horses ;
some of the cleverest had to take cripples in hand,
and show their skill and perseverance in surmounting
difficulties. In fact, driving is an art which has to
be learnt. ‘Peter Pry’s description of the celebrated
Cartwright* is admirable. We are made to see the
man before us, with his well-held reins and well-
poised whip, and his marvellous management of his
leaders. Nearly as good is his account of Leech’s
team from Barnby Moor to Rossetter Bridge, with
four bay blood mares.

In 1836-7 people frequented the great yards from
which started the mails, east, west, north and south—

* See Malet’s ‘Annals of the Road,’ pp. 71-73.
THE START. 7

The Swan with Two Necks, The Bull and Mouth, and
other similar yards; or they would await at Hyde Park
Corner the mails going out of London by that route.
What finer spectacle could be viewed than one of
these Royal Mails, in full trim, with a fine team of

 

four greys, both leaders carrying bar, and up to
their bits, coach properly laden in and out, sometimes
driven by some crack dragsman, with guard all in red
and gold, and with his great tin horn at right
angles with the mail, as he raises it to blow a cheery
blast ? The four-horse drags in Hyde Park are nothing
to this. We know they come out for a drive, and
will go in again; but here, on a December evening,
snow slightly falling, we saw in imagination this
down mail encountering a thousand difficulties—we
pictured her as perhaps snowed up, or gallantly
fighting ;her way through to her destination. The
passengers we envied and held in respect, the out-
siders wrapped up in the greatcoats with capes, the
insiders closely packed,-and their breath already
frozen on the window-panes.

Ah! those were halcyon days. How has De Quincey
painted them for us! Who that has read his ‘The
English Mail-Coach,’ can forget his thrilling picture of
the mail carrying through the country the news of the
victory of Talavera? Englishmen had not in those
days been made effeminate by a sentimental policy,
8 THE COACHING AGE.

 

and thought it right to bring a just cause to the arbi-
trament of arms. Turning our backs on Boers was
not to the fancy of John Bull then, and the. result
was that law was respected, which in these latter days
is despised; so that we have even lived to see a Prime
Minister of England point to an outrage as a reason
for legislation, with the natural result that all over
the world lawlessness has gained a step upon law.

In the period we are speaking of this was not so,
and when De Quincey, fired with the glory of motion,
wrote his famous paper, England was loyal to the
backbone, and united as, alas! we cannot now say
she is. ‘England,’ says De Quincey, ‘owes much
of her grandeur to the depth of the aristocratic element
in her social composition, when pulling against her
strong democracy.’ Long may this be true, and yet
again may she triumph over the disloyal and dishonest,
who are aiming to destroy the Monarchy and House
of Lords, and repeat-the errors of the Great Rebel-
lion § .

The Courier was the great evening paper at the
time of Talavera, and as the mail went through
towns and villages the guard and passengers would
unfold the paper and point with exultation to the
words in large letters, ‘ GLORIOUS Victory! The
ensigns of triumph, too, were at once recognised—
laurel, oak-leaves, and ribbons; and as the mail entered
THE START. 9

 

each town it brought rapture with it, and every living
creature connected with it, from coachman and guard
to passenger and horse, was held for the time to be a
sharer in the victory.

We cannot resist concluding this chapter with the
following extract from De Quincey’s spirited account
of the night when the news of a Peninsular victory
was carried throughout England :

‘The night before us is a night of Victory... .
The guards, as being officially his Majesty’s servants,
and the coachmen, such as are within the privilege
of the Post Office, wear the royal liveries of course ;
and as it is summer, they wear, on this fine evening,
these liveries exposed to view, without any covering
of upper coats. -Such a costume, and the elaborate
arrangement of laurel in their hats, dilate their hearts,
by giving to them openly a personal connection with
the great news. Those passengers who happen to be
gentlemen are now hardly to be distinguished as
such, except by dress; for the usual reserve of their
manner in speaking to the attendants has on this
night melted away. One heart, one pride, one glory
connects every man by the transcendent bond of his
national blood. The spectators, numerous beyond
precedent, express their sympathy with these fervent
feelings by continual hurrahs. Every moment are
ke) THE .COACHING AGE.

 

shouted along by the Post Office servants, and sum-
moned to draw up, the great ancestral names of cities
known to history through a thousand years—Lincoln,
Winchester, Portsmouth, Gloucester, Oxford, Bristol,
York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Stirling,
Aberdeen—expressing the grandeur of the empire by
the antiquity of its towns, and the grandeur of the
mail establishment by the diffusive radiations of its
separate missions. Every moment you heard the
thunder of lids locked down upon the mail-bags.
That sound to each individual mail is the signal for
drawing off, which process is the finest part of the
entire spectacle. Then come the horses into play.
Horses! Can these be horses that bound off with
the action and gestures of leopards? What stir!
what a thundering of wheels! what a trampling of
hoofs! what a sounding of trumpets! what farewell
cheers ! what redoubling peals of brotherly congratu-
lations, connecting the name of the particular mail—
“‘ Liverpool for ever !” with the name of the particular
victory. ‘Badajoz for ever!” or “Salamanca for
ever !”

‘The half-slumbering consciousness that all night
long and all the next day—perhaps for even a longer
period—many of these mails, like fire racing along a
train of gunpowder, will be kindling at every instant
new successions of burning joy, has an obscure effect
THE START. II

 

of multiplying the victory itself. ... A fiery arrow
seems to be let loose northwards, for six hundred
miles. Liberated from the embarrassments of the
city . . . we soon begin to enter upon our natural
pace. . . . Heads of every age crowd to the windows,
young and old understand the language of our victo-
rious symbols, and rolling volleys of sympathizing
cheers run along with us, behind us, and before us.’

This is an extract only where all is worth reading.
The progress through the provinces, the adventures
on the road, the grand and pathetic story of the
23rd Dragoons, these must be sought in De Quigcey’s
work itself.
CHAPTER I.

OUR HIGHWAYS.

THERE is an old saying that ‘ the first step in civiliza-
tion is to make roads, the second to make more roads,
and the third to make more roads still.’

The construction and maintenance of cross roads or
parish highways as distinguished from turnpike roads
has from time to time formed the subject of legislative
enactments ever since the reign of Philip and Mary,
when the foundation was laid of the general system
on which the highways have been managed, until the
recent introduction of highway boards.

The Act of Philip and Mary directed that road
surveyors should be chosen by the inhabitants in
vestry every year, and that the inhabitants should be
bound to provide labour, carriages, etc., for a certain
number of days in each year for maintaining and
repairing the roads. Hence arose what was after-
wards ordinarily known as ‘ Statute labour,’ which
was performed by farmers and persons keeping horses
OUR HIGHWAYS. 13

 

and carts, under the direction of the parish surveyors,
and was given in lieu of payment of rates in money
by those doing the work.

It would seem from the somewhat methodical basis
on which the maintenance of the highways was thus
established that they should thenceforth have been
kept in a decent state. Such, however, was far from
being the case, and even the turnpike or main roads
were long after this period in such a condition as to
be scarcely passable, as we may learn from accounts
of the journeys performed even by royalty ; though
some efforts were made to improve them when a
royal progress was about to be made along them,
according to an entry made in an old account-hook
in the parish of Kingston in Surrey, in the year 1599,
which runs thus: ‘ Paid for mending the wayes when
the Queen went from Wimbledon to Nonsuch, 20d.’
What repair was done for the trifling sum ex-
pended does not appear. The road from Hatfield to
Reading—a distance of fifty-six miles, all comprised
in one trust-——is said to have been constructed
principally for Queen Elizabeth’s use.

Again, in 1703, when Prince George of Denmark
went from Windsor to Petworth, he was fourteen
hours going forty miles, the last nine of which
occupied six hours; while, in 1727, George IL. and
his Queen were a whole night travelling from Kew
14 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Palace to St. James’s, being once overturned. Thus
even royal personages were not exempt from the
discomforts and dangers of travelling on the roads
owing to the wretched condition in which they were
kept.

It is scarcely necessary, perhaps, to mention that
such an important national subject as constructing
and maintaining efficient means of transit throughout
the kingdom frequently rendered Parliamentary in-
tervention indispensable ; and hence the number of
Highway Acts which were passed (independently
of Turnpike Acts) up to the reign of William IV.,
when a General Highway Act was passed, superseding
all previous ones, and providing a number of details
with respect to the accounts, offences and nuisances
on the highways, etc., adopting, however, the existing
principle of the annual appointment of road surveyors
by the inhabitants in vestry, raising the necessary
funds by means of rates, and the employment of
Statute labour as a composition in lieu of money
payments.

The maintenance of the highways was kept tolerably
distinct from that of the turnpike roads, which were
managed by commissioners or trustees under the
provisions of the General Turnpike Act, passed in the
reign of George IV., and the numerous local Acts
referring to the various roads throughout the kingdom.
OUR HIGHWAYS. 15

 

The revenues of the turnpike trustees were mainly
dependent upon the amount of the tolls received, that
of the road surveyors being from the rates made
by themselves, but having to be allowed by two
magistrates. Before, however, the rates were formally
made out and submitted to the magistrates, the rate
of assessment in the pound was discussed and settled
in vestry; the surveyor, very much after the manner
of a Chancellor of the Exchequer laying his Budget
before the House of Commons, submitting to the
vestry estimates of the sums required for labour and
materials and all other incidental disbursements.

As a matter of course, warm—indeed, very warm,
even hot—discussions and differences arose in the
vestries when questions of taxation of the ratepayers
came before them, particularly as many persons in
small country villages, who kept no sort of conveyance
or animal, had an idea that they ought not to be
called on to pay highway rates; never, as they argued,
using the roads. It is really surprising to what an
extent this notion prevailed, and it was consequently
by no means an unusual thing to hear persons,
summoned before a bench of magistrates for non-
payment of a highway rate, urge it as a reason for
entire exemption from the impost. They seemed
oblivious of the fact that the butchers’, bakers’, and
grocers’ carts, together with those conveying goods of
16 THE COACHING AGE.

 

other descriptions, must travel along the roads into
the village for the purpose of bringing them the
necessaries of life.

They were also probably unaware that, although
tolls were levied for the maintenance of the turn-
pike roads, the inhabitants of every parish were
bound by the common Jaw of the land to maintain
the roads passing through their respective parishes ;
indeed, one of the Judges of the King’s Bench stated
that the obligation to maintain all public roads was
public, and in the nature of a tax; that it was their
share of the public burden which those districts had
to pay, and which was imposed for the general benefit
of the community, and tolls were an additional tax
for the same purpose; that no principle of common.
law was more clearly recognised than that which
attached to parishes the liability to repair all highways
within their respective boundaries, and such liability
could not be avoided, unless the charge was fixed by
the clearest evidence ; that it was a mistake to suppose
that the object of Turnpike Acts was to relieve parishes
and townships from the burden of repairing highways,
their object being to improve roads for the general
benefit of the public by imposing a pecuniary tax in
addition to the means already provided by law for
that purpose.

In the event of a highway being very much out of
OUR HIGHWAYS. 17

 

repair, or in a dangerous state, the inhabitants of the
parish were liable to be indicted, and then, perhaps,
in addition to their ordinary highway rates, they
would have to pay all the fines and penalties arising
from the neglect of their obligation to keep their
road in proper condition.

The chief distinction between highways and turnpike
roads was the payment of toll on the latter for the
purpose of their maintenance. The turnpike roads
were generally what are known as ‘ main roads,’
being on the principal thoroughfares from one town
to another, and where there was sufficient traffic
passing to pay the expenses of keeping turnpike-gate
men, repairing the road, etc., out of the tolls collected.
In the ordinary country roads and lanes through
villages off the main roads, the only means of raising
the requisite funds for repair necessarily was by rates
and, as above mentioned, Statute labour, which, how-
ever, was in fact only another mode of paying the
rate by composition in kind.

That the amount raised annually for the mainten-
ance of the highways was a very important element
in the taxation of occupiers and owners of property
subject to the payment of highway rates, is obvious
from the circumstance that little more than forty
years since the length of parish highways was about
104,770 miles, and the expense of maintenance

2
18 THE COACHING AGE.

 

averaged about £11 3s. per mile a year. That the
whole of the sums Jevied under the denomination
of highway rates was not strictly applied to the
purpose specified is manifest from the fact of its.
sometimes being applied in aid of. the poor rate
and some other objects, of: which I will give in-
stances, as also from the administration’ of the fund
being entrusted to persons, as surveyors, who were
inefficient for the superintendence of the repairs of
the roads, were perhaps appointed against their wish,
and remained in office for a year only. True, there
was generally some remuneration fixed by the vestry
as a salary for the road surveyor, but it was so small
that it probably barely covered his expenses during
his year of office.

It would certainly seem that the annual appoint-
ment of persons occasionally unwilling to act and in
very many cases wholly incompetent to discharge the
duties either imposed on or obtained by them, and
delegating to them the duty of expending the large
amount annually raised by highway rates throughout
the kingdom, was a very unsatisfactory system. The
deputing to persons thus appointed the collection and
administration of a sum of no less than £1,273,000,
which was the amount of rates levied for highways
in the year 1839, without any adequate control as
regarded expenditure, is so much at variance with
OUR HIGHWAYS. 19

 

the general practice in business at the present day, of
audits and supervision by the contributors to any
large sums raised by compulsory means, such as rates,
‘that it is rather a matter of astonishment it should
have existed so long. The poor-rate used to be col-
lected and disbursed in the same manner, and the
flagrant abuses which were discovered in the adminis-
tration of it, and the vastly expensive and illegal
modes which were customary, led, in a great measure,
to the introduction of Lord Althorp’s Poor-Law Bill
in 1834, which eventually became the Poor-Law
Union Act, under which the present system of the
poor law is carried on. Acting probably on this
principle, the union of parishes for highway purposes
was recommended in 1840; and, although the High-
way Act, passed in the year after the Poor-Law Act,
enabled parishes to form themselves into unions for
the purpose of appointing a general surveyor, the
formation of highway boards under the existing
system was,not adopted until the year 1862, when
magistrates at quarter sessions were empowered to
form highway districts or unions, the highway board,
consisting of the waywardens for the several parishes
in the union, being elected annually by the parishioners,
together with some ex-officio members.

This plan for the management of the highways by
boards follows very closely upon that of the poor-law

2—2
20 THE COACHING AGE.

 

unions, which, it may be presumed, had been found
to work satisfactorily, a period of twenty-eight years
having elapsed between the time when the poor-law
unions were established, in 1834, and the highway
boards were constituted under the authority of the
Highway Act in 1862. This difference, however,
exists between the two. The former was instituted
by the Poor-Law Commissioners, without the parishes
having the power to prevent their being incorporated,
or having any power to withdraw from a union after
once having been included in it; while under the
Highway Act there is a power of protesting against
the formation of highway unions or districts, and the
adoption of the Act is not compulsory, as even at
the present time—twenty years after the Act was
passed—there are still more than 5,000 parishes not
included in any district, but still managing their
own highways separately, and 8,000 included in
376 districts, including North Wales.

It would seem that the system of districts has
not been uniformly approved, as, although up to
1881 the districts formed generally increased by
a few numbers in each year, yet no less than a
decrease of 256 had taken place in the parishes
comprised in districts, which can only be accounted
for by those parishes being dissatisfied with their
experience of the system, and availing themselves
OUR HIGHWAYS. 21

 

of the power of subtraction or dissolution of the
district authorized by the Act. Another circum-
stance which affords some guidance as to the opinion
formed generally of the working of the Act may be
gathered from the fact that in twenty counties in
England and North Wales the parishes are nearly all
included in highway districts, and in several others
the system has been adopted with respect to the
majority of the parishes, while in seven counties no
highway districts are in existence.

The election of the members of highway boards
and poor-law guardians in unions is similar, both
being elected annually—about’ Lady-day—by the
parishioners ; in one case under the denomination of
waywardens, and in the other of guardians; in both
instances justices of the peace being, under certain
circumstances, ex-officio members of the board. The
number of guardians for each parish, and also of
waywardens, is fixed at the original constitution of
each board.

Each board has a clerk and treasurer, and the
modes of raising the necessary funds are very similar,
the guardians issuing their orders to the different
parishes for their share of the moneys required for
the union expenses, and the highway board doing the
same for the moneys they require; in each case the
moneys being raised by rates, while the general
22 THE COACHING AGE.

 

supervision and control of both boards, including the
forms to be used by them, the mode of keeping their
accounts, and the audit of them, is vested in the
Local Government Board.

It is obvious that some well-organized system for
the general management of the highways throughout
the kingdom was absolutely necessary, looking to the
fact that roads are annually being disturnpiked, and
consequently falling on the highway authorities,
whether parochial or district, for their maintenance
and management; so that the work of highway
boards, it may be fairly assumed, will very consider-
ably increase—the length of highways, both in districts
and parishes, in England and Wales being with the
main roads 115,773 miles; and, as in a very few
years all roads will probably have been disturnpiked,
their length will be added to this already large
number.

To go more into details of figures might not
probably be very interesting, but I may mention that
the average cost per mile of maintaining the roads in
highway districts in 1880 was £12 9s., and of the
main roads in such districts for the same period
£35 11s.

Before the institution of highway boards, in order
to keep down the rates as far as possible, and avoid
sending old and decrepit men (against their will,
OUR HIGHWAYS. 23

 

perhaps) into the union or to the relieving officer for
outdoor relief, it was a very common occurrence to
apply to the surveyor of the highway to know if he
could not give poor old So-and-So'a day or two in
the week ‘on the roads,’ which accounted for one
so frequently seeing very old and nearly worn-out
men slowly and with great difficulty dragging a
scraper across some by-road or lane, or trying to
break a few stones with a hammer. It was probably
some consolation to them to be able to get a crust
without surrendering their freedom by going into the
union—a laudable spirit of independence certainly ;
though I question very much whether, as a matter of
economy, it answered the purpose. ‘True, the nine-
pence or a shilling paid for the day’s labour was not
much, neither was the amount of work done con-
siderable; but as a means of giving assistance to
some of the aged poor, without imposing on them the
stigma, as they frequently regarded it, of applying
for ‘ parish relief,’ it perhaps answered the purpose.
Now that the accounts of highway boards have to
be kept in somewhat elaborate form, and the dis-
bursement of their funds by the officers is minutely
examined, the getting a fair day’s work for a fair
day’s wage may preclude any indulgence on the part
of the surveyors, rendering it incumbent upon them to
employ only able and thoroughly efficient labourers
24 THE COACHING AGE.

 

for the performance of their work. Thus the poor
old road-man or stone-breaker, who sometimes was
an addition to the picturesqueness of the country
lane, will entirely disappear, like another race of men
with whom he was nearly connected —that is the
turnpike-gatekeepers; both the stone-breakers and
the toll-keepers affording instances of the rule that
all public improvements are attended by some loss to
individuals. The sum paid daily was perhaps so small
that the trustees of the turnpike trusts did not look
too narrowly into this mode of expenditure of their
tolls, or consider whether the article cheapest in price
is always the best.

It may not be uninteresting to see how in the old
‘lays, under parochial management, highway business
was transacted. When I say old days, J mean when
the Highway Act of 1835 prescribed the duties of
the road surveyors, and laid down generally the law
relative to highways, as it was to be thenceforth
carried out. The position of affairs is very different
at the present day, having been materially altered,
principally in matters relating to the accounts, within
the last few years.

Nearly all parochial business was transacted
at the parish vestries. Overseers, churchwardens,
and road surveyors were chosen at them. The
amounts for which the several rates were to be made
“SURIAHHM AHL NO NVA HOVOO % daddVNS NIVHO

dun 4cey ey “ute Pp ssabunqg ¢

 
OUR HIGHWAYS. 25

 

were fixed; and, having said thus much, it is scarcely
necessary to add that the discussions on financial
questions often waxed very warm, as I have men-
tioned, on the subject of highways, and rows at
vestries were quite proverbial. One curious circum-
stance in connection with the making of poor-rates
may perhaps be unknown to many persons intimately
connected with poor-law administration at the present
time. All poor-rates were, by Act of Parliament, to
be published by notice yn the church on the next
Sunday after the rate had been allowed by the magis-
trates, and no rate was valid until such notice had
been given; accordingly, the parish clerk used to
read out from his desk in the church, during the
morning service, notice that a rate for the relief of
the poor had been made. This practice, however, was
altered by an Act of Parliament passed in the first
year of the present reign, which substituted the
affixing written or printed notices on the church
doors for the public reading out in church.

As regards the powers of parish surveyors to
make rates, it was usual, but not necessary in order
to make it legal, for the surveyor to submit a state-
ment of the amount he proposed to raise or required
to the vestry; but, unlike the overseers, he was
restricted by the Highway Act as to the extent to
which he could tax the parishioners, which directed
26 THE COACHING AGE.

 

that no rate should exceed at one time 10d. in the
pound, or 2s. 6d. in the year, unless specially autho-
rized by the ratepayers in the manner pointed out by
the Act. The surveyor having made out his rate-
book in the form prescribed by the statute, and got it
allowed by two magistrates, and then duly published,
let us look a little into the manner in which he used’
to expend it, and the account he had to give of it
before he came to the vestry for another rate. I say
“came to the vestry,’ for it was generally looked
upon as a necessary step before a rate could be made ;
at all events, no surveyor was bold enough to incur
the odium of ignoring the vestry and making a rate,
as he might have done, privately in his own little
back parlour. Of course, under such circumstances
he would never expect to be re-appointed at the end
cf the parochial term, even if he desired it, which,
in some cases where there were emoluments attached
to the office, might occur.

To set the vestry at defiance in a small agricultural
or out-of-the-way parish was tantamount to making
enemies of all the principal inhabitants—not a very
desirable position to be placed in. By the Highway
Act of 1835, some forms of account to be kept by the
surveyors, and annual returns to be made by them,
are set out in the schedules to the Act, and these
accounts were verified on the oath of the surveyors
OUR HIGHWAYS. 27

 

before two magistrates about Lady-day. About the
year 1879 this practice was discontinued, and an
audit of the surveyor’s accounts by the official
Government auditor, directed in the same manner
as audits of Poor-Law officers’ accounts, and a system
of keeping the accounts in accordance with that in
use for highway boards, was substituted.

The necessity for a more strict supervision of the
parochial surveyor’s accounts was rendered apparent,
inasmuch as it was by no means unusual for any
items of disbursements which could not be passed by
the official auditor of the Poor-Law accounts, or
would not be allowed by the vestry out of the church-
rates when they were in existence, to be put into the
highway accounts, where they might either pass un-
observed, or not be demurred to by persons who
strongly objected to the payment of church-rates, and
accordingly at the vestry meetings would repudiate
any charge which could not be strictly and legally
included in them. To put them into the surveyor’s
account was the common mode of disposing of all
such payments as parish officers had made, and were
unable to reimburse themselves from any other
sources.

A few instances will show what payments the
Government auditors used to find when they com-
menced auditing the parochial highway accounts. In
28 THE COACHING AGE.

 

a parish in South Wales it appeared that at a vestry it
was resolved, ‘ That for any grown-up fox killed within
the hamlet, and for producing the head of the same
to the guardian of the said hamlet, the person will
receive the sum of £1 1s., and also for a pup will
receive 10s, 6d.; and also for a raven, on the pro-
duction of the same, will receive 2s. 6d. from the
guardian of the said hamlet.’ And, in accordance
with this resolution, a payment was made by the
overseers for the killing of a fox, and the sum was
charged in the highway-rate accounts. The auditor
disallowed this sum, and the Local Government
Board confirmed the disallowance, on the ground
that no ingenuity could connect the slaughter of
foxes with the repair of the highways.

In another case a club had existed more than
five-and-twenty years for the destruction of sparrows,
the expenses being paid out of the highway-rate. It
is needless to state that the auditor disallowed the
payment, whereupon the surveyor appealed to the
Local Government Board, alleging that it was the
first time the accounts had been audited, that he
was quite unaware that it was wrong, and that the
club had been formed because there were so many
thatched houses, and the sparrows destroyed them and
the corn. The farmers used to shoot the sparrows,
and sell them to a person who was afterwards repaid
OUR HIGHWAYS. 29

 

out of the rate. £3 10s. 1d. had been paid in this
instance, together with a sum of 12s. for fees, but
what these were was not explained. The number of
sparrows slaughtered for this sum appeared to be
1,383, and of these 765 fell to the share of the men
and boys in the village.

A different class of persons were the mole-catchers,
whose remuneration for many years was charged upon
the highway-rate in frequent instances. In one of
these cases the persons surcharged appealed to the
Local Government Board, stating, in support of their
appeal, that, having no other available source from
which to pay a sum of £6 for two years’ mole-
catching, they paid it from the surveyor's account.
The mole-catcher in another case was paid yearly
£1 15s. to keep the land clear of moles, This was
a fixed sum, and did not vary whether the moles
killed were few or many.

In a parish where it had been the custom for
twenty years to take a penny in the pound from the
highway-rate once in two or three years, to pay the
expense of destroying moles and sparrows, the sur-
veyor stated that they engaged a man to pay for the
sparrows. He took them from the children, by whom
they were principally caught, and paid for them at
the rate of a penny for two old ones and young ones,
and a penny for eight eggs.
30 THE COACHING AGE.

 

In another case a hat and coat for the bellman
were paid for out of the surveyor’s account. In.order
to facilitate the delivery of letters in another country
parish, a charge was made on the highway-rate for
fifty-two weeks’ remuneration of a fit person appointed
to meet the postman daily at a given spot, carry
the letters thence, and deliver them.

That the feasting of parochial officers, about which
one hears a good deal even at the present time, is not
an institution of to-day, appears from the disallow-
ance of a considerable charge on the ground that
the payment was made for the personal refreshment
of members of the highway board and others, on an
inspection of the roads in the district. The surveyor
in this instance appealed to the Local Government
Board, urging in support of his appeal that a peram-
bulation of the district was deemed necessary ; that
those who took part in it had a hard day’s work, and
had thus a right to some refreshment, for which
reasonable expenses should be allowed. The Board,
however, were unable to consider champagne a reason-
able item in the bill.

In another case the auditor, and also the Board, con-
sidered that early salmon, sherry, and pale ale could
not be charged on funds raised by compulsory taxation,
although the appellant was of opinion that the repast
did not exceed the bounds of reasonable refreshment.
OUR HIGHWAYS. 3I

 

The effect of these official audits of course was that
the illegal payments which had been regularly made for
many years were discontinued ; and in the case of one
of the mole-catchers who had been paid for some fifteen
or twenty years, on his remuneration being stopped
he threatened the surveyor with legal proceedings,
because he considered he had not had proper notice.

The instances cited sufficiently demonstrate the
laxity which used: generally to exist in the adminis-
tration of funds raised by compulsory taxation ; and,
although I have only referred to those payments
which were made out of highway-rates, gross abuses
and most flagrant illegalities were perpetrated in the
management of poor-rates before the establishment
of the present poor-law unions and audit of parochial
poor-law accounts. sf ff Yee ialdetiene, dm

The era of serious naff apropaiction of funds legally
raised for special purposes may now be considered
at an end, as, whenever a legislative measure is
passed, involving the raising considerable sums by
means of rates, such as for sanitary, school, or other
local purposes, adequate protection is afforded to the
ratepayers by requiring proper accounts to be kept in
specified forms, and periodically passed by an inde-
pendent official auditor. The days of the payment
of fox destroyers, and mole and sparrow killers, may
now be looked on as past.
CHAPTER II.
ROAD ENGINEERS.

THE improvement of the roads seems to have pro-
gressed rather more expeditiously after the establish-
ment of Palmer’s mail-coach between London and
Bristol than it had done in previous years, it being a
matter of necessity to put them into such condition
as to render them fit for the mails to travel on. With
this advancement in the condition of the great main
roads, that of the other roads naturally followed, but
the inauguration of a system of improving the roads
is due to the great practical talent and scientific
ability of Mr. Loudon McAdam, his son Sir James
McAdam, and Mr. Telford, a noted engineer.

Some information respecting men to whom the
thanks of the country at large are due, is not out of
place; for although the use of the roads, that is main
roads, has much diminished since the introduction of
railways, McAdam’s system continues, and we are
indebted to him for the good roads we now have as a
means of transit all over the kingdom.
ROAD ENGINEERS. 33

 

Mr. Loudon McAdam came to this country from
America in the year 1783, at a time when many
new roads were being made in Scotland. He was
appointed a commissioner of them, and in that capa-
city studied the subject of road-making. He after-
wards removed to Bristol, and took charge of the
roads in that district as surveyor in 1816, because it
enabled him to carry his principles into practice, and
make the necessary experiments for establishing them.
His improvements have been generally conducted
under his own direction, or that of his sons. He
considered that by a proper application of materials a
good road might be made in every county.

He and his sons had the superintendence of more
than three hundred miles of road, and twice as many
more were improved by their advice and assistance.

The grand object of all modern roads is the accom-
modation of vehicles, and in order to accomplish this
the most essential requisite is to have the surface as
smooth, hard, and level as possible; hence in a soft
road, where the wheel sinks in deeply, the draught
becomes exceedingly heavy. But whether a broad or
narrow wheel were the most advantageous seemed to
be an unsettled question, as the narrow wheel might
often run between stones, where the broad wheel
would have to pass over them; and a very accurate
practical road-maker said that a good road never

3
34 THE COACHING AGE.

 

suffered from narrow wheels with moderate weights
when not in rapid motion, but was equally worn by
the rapid driving of heavy stage-coaches, and by the
slow grinding of overloaded broad-wheeled waggons..

It would seem that the institution of turnpikes
originated about the beginning of the last century,
when the maintenance of the roads was removed from
the parishes through which they passed and levied on
the travellers by means of tolls; but the condition of
the roads was not said to be improved by the adop-
tion of this system.

Mr. McAdam’s leading principle was that a road
ought to be considered as an artificial flooring, form-
ing astrong, smooth, solid surface capable of carrying
great weights and over which carriages might pass _
without meeting any impediment.

The leading feature in his system was setting a
limit to the size and weight of the stones to be
put on the roads, the weight being limited to six
ounces ; so for the purpose of ascertaining this cor-
rectly, the surveyors were directed to carry a small
pair of scales and a six-ounce weight, and in order to
test the size, a small iron ring, through which the
stones might be passed.

The practised eye of the surveyor would detect by
a glance at a heap of stones whether they were in the
main broken in compliance with his requirements,
ROAD ENGINEERS. 35

 

while in the event of any difference of opinion on
the point between himself and the stone-breaker, he
had the means for conclusively settling the point on
the spot. Women, boys, and old men past hard labour,
Mr. McAdam said, could sit down and break stones into
small pieces not exceeding six ounces in weight. They
should be broken at the sides, and not on the road;
notwithstanding which, the latter mode is practised
in some of the by-roads, even at the present time.

With reference to the manner of putting the stones
on to the road when broken, he was decidedly against
any mixture of earth, clay, chalk, or any other matter
that would imbibe water, or be affected by frost, as
being superfluous, and generally injurious; as good
stone, well broken, would always combine by its own
roughness into a solid substance with a smooth surface
that would not be affected by the vicissitudes of
weather or the action of wheels.

The soundness of this advice was demonstrated in
one year. When a hard frost was succeeded by a
sudden thaw, a great number of roads broke up, and
the wheels penetrated into the original soil, and those
roads in which chalk was a component part became
nearly impassable ; even roads made over chalky soils
gave way in many places, while not one of the roads
which had been thoroughly made according to
McAdam’s directions had given way.

? 3—2
36 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Another material advantage of his plan was the
employment of a much greater proportion of human
labour instead of the work of horses. Previously, one-
fourth of the whole expense was paid for men’s labour,
and three-fourths for that of horses; but on his
method being adopted, one-fourth only was paid for
horses’ labour, and the other three to men, women,
and children. Large stones, he said, would con-
stantly work up by the agitation of the traffic on the
- road, and leave spaces for the reception of water, and
the only way of keeping the stones in their places
was to have them of uniform size.

In one road made on his system, in consequence
of the nature of the original soil, it became neces-
sary to put on in many parts, before the road was
sufficiently consolidated, as much as three feet of
materials ; it was, however, ultimately made excellent,
though at an expense of little less than a thousand
pounds a mile.

On the subject of paved roads, and those made on his
system, McAdam said that in steep ascents pavements
were most objectionable; and added that it was said
that at the north end of Blackfriars Bridge more
horses fell and received injury than at any other
spot in the kingdom.

His choice as to the natural subsoil over which to
construct a road is rather curious, but of course per-
ROAD ENGINEERS. 37

 

fectly correct, being based on large actual experience,
though most probably at variance with the general
notions upon the subject.

He preferred a bog to any other foundation for a
road, provided it would allow a man to walk over it,
as the resistance to the motion of a carriage would
not be materially affected by the foundation if the
road was well made, and he mentioned a road which
shook when carriages passed over it, yet the con-
sumption of materials was less than on the limestone
rock in the neighbourhood. In the construction of
such roads he did not use any faggots nor any stones
exceeding six ounces in weight, and those sank in
the bog, but united in one mass like a piece of
timber.

As regards the wheels of vehicles passing along the
roads, he thought broad wheels less advantageous
than was generally supposed ; and he suggested that
the tolls might always be fairly assessed in proportion
to the number of horses employed, it being said that
their feet did more harm to the road than wheels ;
and he also suggested that waggoners should be
encouraged to harness their horses in pairs rather
than in a line one behind the other, which wore
a channel or pathway along the road.

As might naturally be supposed, McAdam came
into communication with the London coach proprie-
38 THE COACHING AGE.

 

tors, and learnt their opinions on the construction of
roads, their information, like his own, being derived
from practical experience, and the influence of good
or bad roads upon their horses. Mr. Waterhouse said
his horses working near London lasted about . four
years, but in remoter districts about six; and he
agreed with Mr. McAdam that a slight convexity
only was more desirable for a road than a greater,
and that the gravel near London was too often used
without being sufficiently sifted. What were then
called the light coaches with their loads were com-
puted to weigh about two tons and a half, divided
thus: the coach one, the passengers one, and the
luggage a. half. Another proprietor, in corroboration
of Mr. McAdam’s plan as to the exclusion of soft mate-
rials from the stones put on the road, said that since
the adoption of flints instead of gravel, sixteen miles
were as easily performed on it by his horses as twelve
were before the alteration.

Having originated and thoroughly established his
mode of constructing and repairing roads, McAdam
instilled his principles into the minds of his sons,
and one of them (who afterwards became Sir James
McAdam) succeeded to his father’s reputation, making
such improvements in roads as to become known
throughout the kingdom. His system was named
after himself, and the appellation is in use to this
ROAD ENGINEERS. 39

 

day; a road made or repaired on his plan being
described as ‘ Macadamised.’

Thus Jamés McAdam, having acquired a thorough
practical experience in the management and making of
roads, and having filled many importané situations in
connection with them, was eventually made Sir James
McAdam, became the General Superintendent of
the Metropolitan Roads, and was in that position at
the time when railways were gradually being opened.
from London, or, as he expressed it, ‘the calamity of
railways has fallen upon us.’ His remark was made
with reference to the diminution of the tolls along
the main roads out of London, and the consequent
reduction in the funds available for keeping them in
an efficient state of repair.

In the year 1839, in anticipation of an annually
increasing diminution in the tolls, McAdam foretold
what has since occurred, viz., the maintenance of
the roads by the parishes through which they pass.
If, he said, the creditors exercised the right they pos-
sessed of taking the tolls for payment of the principal
and interest due to them, the maintenance of the
roads by the parishes must be a most serious point ;
it was taking place silently throughout the kingdom,
and as soon as this became better known, and the
ease with which it might be done, he had no doubt a
great many turnpike-roads in the kingdom would be
40 THE COACHING AGE.

 

in the hands of the creditors, and the parishes would
be left to keep them, not in good, but in passable
repair.

Under the institution of Highway Boards, else-
where referred to, this has come to pass, with some
assistance from the national Exchequer in the case of
the main roads.

In his annual report some four years later, he
says: ‘Much additional thoroughfare and wear have
continued to take place upon the upper portions of
the roads in the Metropolis during past years, arising
from the great increase in the number of public
carriages rendered necessary for the conveyance of the
public to and from the several railway stations, and
by the extension of buildings in almost every direc-
tion along the lines of the several roads. A large
addition has therefore taken place in the number
of horses kept in London, by which the carriage
of hay, straw, corn and green provender, paying only
half toll, has been much increased; and the roads
have now to sustain, principally during the winter
season, a severe additional and heavy return-carriage
of manure which pays no toll, and being principally
in narrow-wheeled waggons weighing from six to
eight tons, causes the consumption of much material,
and the expenditure of much labour.’

Notwithstanding the vast national benefits derived
ROAD ENGINEERS. 4t

+

from the ability and talents of Mr. McAdam and his
sons, they did not reap from the Government the
financial reward they were so justly entitled to expect ;
petitions to Parliament and other endeavours to obtain
adequate remuneration for the services rendered by
them were not altogether successful.

Indirectly the establishment of many mails aad
the acceleration of others were attributable to the
labour and scientific abilities of Mr. McAdam, for
without good roads the coaches or mails never could
have attained anything approximating their rate of
speed for some years prior to their being superseded
by railways.

The acceleration of postal communication means, in
fact, the bringing places nearer to each other, and very
greatly facilitates the general commercial transactions
of the whole kingdom.

But, although the Postmaster-General obtained
great advantages in the expeditious transit of all the
correspondence committed to his charge, he was not
in a position to make any recompense to the persons
through whose agency the advantages accrued, the
Treasury being the Government department through
which these payments would be made.

It may be that this division of departments has
been the means of causing not less than three great
men, including Mr. McAdam, to be dealt with by the
42 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Government in a very parsimonious spirit. I allude
to Sir Rowland Hill and Mr. Palmer, both of whom
had to encounter an immense amount of opposition
and obloquy before their respective schemes were
ultimately accepted. Petitions to Parliament to have
their services adequately remunerated, and urgent
applications to Government departments failed in
producing the desired effect; but in Sir Rowland
Hill’s case there was this satisfaction, that the country
at large was sensible of the benefits bestowed upon
them by his system of the penny postage, and _practi-
cally gave expression to its views by the presenta-
tion to him of a handsome pecuniary testimonial,
independently of which he retired upon a pension on
more liberal terms than usual.

It was not without a good deal of toil and labour,
extending over a period of nearly twenty years, that
Mr. Palmer succeeded in obtaining a Parliamentary
grant of fifty thousand pounds. He, like Sir Rowland
Hill, had had a great many rebuffs—to use a mild
expression—in the course of his endeavours to
establish a mail-coach.

Some of the disagreeables that Mr. Palmer met with
in the course of his connection with the Post Office
arose from his own impetuosity and indiscretion,
which brought him into hostile collision with the
other officials, who, in some instances, were not slow
ROAD ENGINEERS. 43

 

in availing themselves of opportunities of retaliating
upon him for any grievances he had inflicted upon
them.

In a notice of, the great road-makers the name of
Telford, the eminent engineer and principal manager
of the Holyhead Road, must not be omitted.

He was not, like McAdam, the originator of an
entirely new mode of constructing or maintaining
roads, but he was an engineer of high standing,
and an authority on all matters connected with
roads. To him were due many of the improvements
on the Great Holyhead Road, which was under the
Road Commissioners, so that he did not come into
direct contact with the Government, or hold any
official position under it; thus he was saved all
the anxiety and disappointment, with a vast amount
of trouble, devolving upon some of those who, as
I have shown, were connected with the Postal
Office.

Public services, though often highly appreciated if
we may judge from merely verbal expressions of
gratitude, are not always requited in a more pleasing
and substantial form to the satisfaction or according
to the acknowledged deserts of the benefactor ; unlike
the poor negro, who, in giving a subscription to
a hospital from which he had derived benefit, being
unable to express in language his feelings of gratitude
44 THE COACHING AGE.

 

contributed according to his ability, accompanying
his subscription with ‘Me grateful one guinea.’

The aspect of the roads on which McAdam and
Telford bestowed so much care and attention, in many
instances, is now melancholy, and betokens the state
into which Sir James McAdam anticipated they would
get when he said the parish would keep them not in
good, but in passable repair, which they are as toa
portion only of their width in many parts.

It is well, perhaps, that the great supporters of our
roads in years long since past cannot see them in their
present altered and dilapidated state, looking almost
like country lanes; about one half only of what
was once a broad fine road being now metalled and
kept in repair, while the remaining portion is more
or less covered with weeds and grass, as is also the
case with a considerable part of the footpaths. Main
roads as they used to be, and as they are now, are
vastly different.
“LSVIG DONILTAd AHL OL GeHSOdxXa

‘duit yareyuey uy 4390 ssebumee

 
CHAPTER III.

THE OLD COACHING ROADS.

Since the day when mail-coaches ceased running,
and the annual procession of the mails on the Queen’s
birthday was discontinued some forty years since, no
opportunity has existed of seeing any number of
four-horse coaches together except at the annual
meets of the Four-in-hand and Coaching Clubs.
Although these two clubs have only been instituted
since the days. of regular coach-travelling, there
appears long anterior to that time to have been an
amateur coaching club of some description or other.
So long since as the year 1806, there was the Driving
Club, the favourite rendezvous of which was the
Black Dog at Bedfont, on the road from Hounslow to
Staines, and the members of the club used to drive
down from London, dine, and return in the evening,
the distance being just over thirteen miles from Hyde
Park Corner. At the late meets of the Four-in-hand
and Coaching Clubs in the Park nearly thirty coaches
appeared on each occasion, and the crowded state of
46 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the Park showed the great interest taken in them;
in fact, a meet has now become one of the things of
the season which Society must attend.

Anything at all like road-travelling—that is to say,
by a conveyance combining some degree of comfort
with a reasonable speed—was developed somewhat
suddenly, but disappeared still more suddenly.

The improvement commenced about the year 1784,
when a Mr. John Palmer, who was the manager of
the Bath Theatre, having become connected with the
Post Office, succeeded, in the face of very strong
opposition and prejudice, in starting the first mail-
coach in substitution for the previous tardy and unsafe
mode of conveying the letters by boys, on what were
described as being ‘worn-out hacks.’ Mr. Pitt, who
was then in office, induced the Government to give
Mr. Palmer’s scheme a trial; although it was de-
clared to be ‘an impossibility,” likely to lead to
crime, ‘as when once desperate fellows had deter-
mined upon robbing the mail, resistance would lead
to murder.’ For many years, however, after the
introduction of Palmer’s system, no attempt was
made to rob the coaches. So bad, though, was the
state of the roads, even to nearly the end of the last
century, that it took a man two days and three
nights’ incessant travelling to get from Manchester to
Glasgow in the coach, and a day and a half between
THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 47

 

Edinburgh and Glasgow. With the cross-roads it
was even worse, as in many instances where mail-
‘coaches had been applied for, and the Post Office
authorities had consented to put them on, they were
obliged to wait until the roads were ready to receive
them. The accelerated speed in travelling may be
attributed mainly to the great road engineers, Telford
and McAdam, as, from the condition in which we learn
that the roads used to be, with ruts up to the axle-
trees of the carriages, anything like speed was out of
the question altogether. Telford had the management
of the Holyhead Road to Shrewsbury, and was also
extensively employed on other roads by the Road
Commissioners. That his assistance was wanted on the
Holyhead Road is evinced by the circumstance that
when a new mail-coach was put on the road in 1808,
twenty-two townships were indicted by the Post
Office authorities for having their roads in a dangerous
and unfinished state.

That the London and Holyhead Road, however, was
not neglected, may be gathered from the fact that at
different times more than six or seven Acts of
Parliament relating to it were passed for the purpose
of authorizing alterations for shortening the distance,
improving the gradients, and raising the necessary
funds for executing the works by loans. The last
Act was obtained so late as the year 1831 for the
48 THE COACHING AGE.

 

purpose of making alterations and improvements, etc.,
commencing at the Wellington Inn at the foot of
Highgate Hill farthest from London, and proceeding
thence to Barnet, omitting the street through that
town, but comprising a portion of the road leading to
Hatfield, and past the ‘ Highstone’ at Hadley, which
was erected to commemorate the battle of Barnet, as
appears by the inscription on it. The Great Northern
Railway passes not far from the spot, and when
the ground was being dug up for its construction,
weapons of various kinds were occasionally met with,
and also some old articles in the pottery of the
period.

The record on the stone is to the effect that the
battle of Barnet, between Edward IV. and Guy, Earl
of Warwick, was fought there in 1471, and that the
earl was defeated and slain.

Probably in the year 1831, when the last Act of
Parliament relating to the Holyhead Road was
obtained, there was little if any idea that there would
ever be a railway taking all the traffic off the road,
including the old broad-wheeled waggon, as the Act
prescribes the tolls to be taken in the various cases
where ‘the fellies of the wheels of the waggon, wain,
dray, cart, caravan, or other such-like carriage, by
whatever name the same now is or may hereafter be
called or described, are of the breadth of six inches
THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 49

 

or more.’ Other tolls were fixed for the narrower
fellies, being four and a half inches or less. The tolls,
were fixed on the horses—being, in fact, sixpence for’
every horse drawing any coach, chaise, or other like
vehicle, whereas the amount on each horse drawing
the broad-wheeled waggon was only twopence. The
object in assessing the toll was evidently to make the.
vehicles doing the greatest amount of damage to the
road pay the highest amount. That great exertions
were made to render the Holyhead Road available in
every respect for a large and expeditious traffic over
it, is manifest from the very large sums expended.
upor it, for in the year 1841 the trustees of different
parts of the road between London and Shrewsbury
had at various times between the years 1825 and
1831 received advances out of the Consolidated Fund
amounting to no less than £83,700; and as these
advances were only made for ‘improvements,’ the
annual expenses of repair had to be paid out of the
tolls.

Could some of the old coachmen and guards who
used to travel on the road rise out of their graves,
great would be their astonishment to see its con-
dition now, with grass growing actually on the parts
over which they used to drive, only a narrow space
in the centre being kept in repair, and used by
the few carts and other light vehicles passing along

4
50 THE COACHING AGE.

 

now and then—nothing with ‘fellies of the breadth
of six inches or more’ having regularly travelled on
it for many years, the nearest approach to such a
thing probably being the thrashing-machine, the
weight and wheels of which certainly do not tend to
improve a road; indeed, from their great weight it is
a very common thing to see on bridges in by-roads
notice-boards prohibiting thrashing-machines from
crossing, as the bridges are only strong enough to
bear ordinary traffic. This must be rather incon-
venient where a thrashing-machine is let out for hire
at various farms, necessitating its passage along ‘the
roads between the different places at which it is
required.

That these machines are not more generally in use
is perhaps a matter of congratulation with those who
have to drive about country lanes much, notwith-
standing the warning of the man in advance with the
red flag and the shutting off the steam, as the huge
engine itself is an object few horses will pass quietly.
Thrashing-machines were not to be seen on the roads
in the days of mails and coaches, or there might
occasionally have been an entry on the guard’s
time-bill on the ‘ Quicksilver’ mail or Manchester
‘Telegraph,’ ‘Three minutes lost in getting past a
thrashing-machine met in the road at ; and
this, perhaps, if any accident occurred, might have

 
THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 51

 

led to the painting of a sensational coaching picture,
as was the case with the Exeter mail when a lioness
escaped from a travelling caravan of -‘Wombwell’s,
and sprang on one of the leaders near Winterslow
Hut, on Salisbury Plain, October 20, 1816. The
event was not lost on the artists of that day, who
duly depicted it. The appearance on the ground
of a large dog which attacked the lioness, and thus
diverted her attention, together with the arrival of
one of the keepers from the caravan, prevented
further injury to the horse, which lived to work for
some years in coaches.

When steam-power was introduced into the agri-
cultural districts in the shape of thrashing-machines,
a very strong prejudice (perhaps not altogether un-
naturally) was excited in the mind of ‘Hodge,’
who began to look upon his occupation as gone; and
so strong was this fear that it led to an extensive
system of incendiarism, and threatening letters, signed
‘Swing,’ were frequently received by farmers, warn-
ing them against the employment of the machines,
and giving them to understand that on their failing
to take the hint they would in all probability find
their corn-ricks burnt down some morning. The
threatening was carried on so extensively and syste-
matically that it caused quite a panic in the agri-
cultural and corn-growing parts of the country. A

4—2
52 THE COACHING AGE.

 

somewhat similar raid; it may be remembered, was
carried on at a more recent period against turnpikes in
South Wales. There, the individual from whom the.
threats of vengeance were supposed to emanate passed
under the nom de guerre. of ‘Rebecca; and the
onslaught was on ‘ pikes,’ which, in the event of
their not being spontaneously removed, would, it was
stated, be forcibly demolished, a threat which was in
many instances carried out in what were called
the ‘ Rebecca riots.’ How many ‘pikes’ have since
been removed by the peaceable means of Acts of
Parliament, is perhaps best known to those deeply
interested in the subject, from having been creditors
on the different turnpike trusts and holders of turn-
pike bonds, at one time considered almost as safe an
investment as Consols or Exchequer Bills.

I remember to have seen somewhere, and regret
much I have not got it, a capital description of a toll-
house for sale when the turnpike was done away with.
Although it was, in fact, only a burlesque on what
would have been the auctioneer’s actual particulars of
sale, and, to say the least of it, very flowery and
highly coloured, still it could not be characterized
as actually fallacious. It was very cleverly done;
and no one reading it would have supposed it actually
referred to a turnpike-house. All I can recollect of it
is that it described a substantially built brick cottage
THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 53

 

on the borders of Middlesex and Surrey, situate ‘on
the banks of the River Thames, and adjacent to one
of the main-roads to the West of England. The
actual property referred to was no other than the
toll-house at the end of Staines Bridge, on the left-
hand side as you go from Staines to Egham.

When the Exeter ‘Defiance,’ one of Mrs. Ann
Nelson’s coaches, from the Bull Inn, Aldgate, went
through the gate at Staines, all the tolls at the gates
below that were paid by the guard every Monday,
‘amounting to about thirty pounds. It so happened
that the keeper of the gate near IIchester had got in
arrear with his payments to the trustees, and accord-
ingly their clerk served a notice on the guard of the
coach not to pay him any more tolls. The gate-keeper
being aware of this, by way of availing himself of the
most effective weapon for counteracting the practical
carrying out of the clerk’s notice, shut the gate before
the time for the arrival of the coach. When the
guard came in sight of the gate, which, somewhat
to his surprise at so unusual a circumstance, was
closed, he blew the horn, but all to no purpose ;
the gate remained shut, the pike-keeper refusing to
open it until the tolls for the week which were then
due were paid. The guard refused to pay, but ten-
dered three shillings, being the amount for the coach
on that day. Eventually the coach was allowed to
54 THE COACHING AGE.

 

go through, but in the meantime the pike-keeper
had got a horse and trap in which he managed to
reach the next gate before the coach, where a similar
parley took place. The keeper of this gate was
more obdurate than the Ilchester one, and refused to
capitulate; but the guard had been told when he
was served with the notice what he was to do in the
event of resistance, and that he would be indemnified
against proceedings which: might be taken against
him for withholding the tolls and getting the coach
through the gate. In his tool-box and about the
coach he carried a few articles for use in case of break-
downs or anything happening to the coach during a
journey, and among these most opportunely were a
small saw and jimmy, with which he intimated his
intention to storm the enemy’s outworks, and effect a
passage through the gate. This led toa single combat
between the pike-keeper and guard, but the latter
being a big man and not wholly deficient in pugilistic
knowledge, became the victor, and the coach went
through the gate without the threatened cutting a
way through having to be resorted to. The circum-
stance of the coach being stopped at the two gates
arose from the tolls being leased to the same person,
and he it was in fact who was in arrear with the
payments to the trustees, the gate-keeper in each
instance being merely his collector, whose duty it
THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 55

 

was to hand the money over to his employer, who, in
the phraseology of the day, ‘ farmed’ the tolls, which
were put up periodically by the trustees for tender ;
the person whose tender was accepted then paid the
fixed amount to the trustees, and took all the tolls
at the gates, looking to the difference between the
two for his profit after paying the expenses of col-
lecting.

Meetings of turnpike trustees were considered of
some importance, next, perhaps, to petty and quarter
sessions, being attended by magistrates, gentlemen of
property in the neighbourhood, or other persons duly
qualified, together with a clerk and surveyor. They
occasioned pleasant meetings among the squires and
clergymen, who sometimes were appointed trustees,
combining business with pleasure, a ride over in the
morning to discuss various matters in connection
with the roads, followed by a lunch at the inn where
the meetings in purely rural districts were usually
held, and a chat about the last run or the next meet
of the hounds. Joseph Baxendale, the head of the
firm of ‘ Pickford,’ was one of the trustees appointed
by an Act of Parliament relating to the Whetstone
Trust on the North Road, where his house was situate,
and the Pickford vans with four horses used to pass.
They were different from the Pickford vans at the
present day, being much lighter, more in the shape of
56 THE COACHING. AGE.

 

an omnibus, closed in for conveyance of goods only,
and travelling at atrotting pace. A large stone, from
‘which probably Whetstone took its name, is: still
to be seen there, but the turnpike gate and house
are both gone.

It was a busy time at Whetstone. Gate about
Barnet Fair in the beginning of September, before
the London and North-Western, better known at its
origin as the London and Birmingham Railway,
opened, and before the cattle disease caused such
havoc among stock.

The mails and coaches on the northern roads filled
well with persons having business at the fair. As
one of the largest in the kingdom, it necessarily drew
together an immense concourse of people. Irish
horses, Welsh ponies, black Scotch and Welsh cattle,
Herefords and Devons,: were all numerously repre-
sented. Buyers and sellers from all parts of England,
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland had to travel by road,
and generally remained in the town four or five
days, the fair lasting three ; the afternoon of the last
winding up with a pleasure fair, including a Welsh-
men’s race for a saddle and bridle, the stakes being
raised by subscriptions previously collected from
residents. The race certainly was unique in its
way, the horses being such as the drovers or cattle-
dealers had ridden up to the fair, and the riders
THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 57

 

the drovers, who sometimes rode with saddle. and
bridle, but, in default of possessing those articles,
would ride bareback with or. without a bridle, as
the case might be, or with only a halter. That the
usual attire of a jockey was entirely dispensed with
followed as a matter of course ; so far from putting
on any costume, the practice was generally the reverse,
the riders being in their shirt-sleeves, with pocket-
handkerchiefs tied round their heads, the only qualifi-
cation being that they should be bond fide Welshmen,
and drovers.

The shouting and jabbering in Welsh at the start-
ing-post was something terrific, there generally being
about ten or a dozen runners ; and as they came into
the straight run to the winning-post the cattle-
dealers, on their horses, followed immediately, gallop-
ing up the course as hard as they could go—all
shouting, of course. Then some half-dozen of the
dealers would start off for a race on their own account,
going the whole round of the course, shouting all the
‘time. It was certainly a scene that should have been
witnessed to be thoroughly understood. When the
Great Northern Railway Company made their branch
line from Finsbury Park to Barnet the racing was
done for, the line running straight along a consider-
able part of the course.

Innkeepers in Barnet made a grand harvest at the
58 THE COACHING AGE.

 

fair, all their houses being full, and also the inn-
keepers along the road, together with the coach
and mail proprietors, turnpike lessees, and others
connected with the road traffic, not forgetting the
neighbouring farmers, as the droves of cattle all
walked up from Scotland and Wales, and fields were
required to turn them into during their journey,
which from the more distant parts of the country
occupied a period of a month or six weeks, A
few days’ rest, moreover, was required before the
first day of the fair ; and for some days previously the
fields round Barnet, which is in what is called ‘the
grass country, used to be black with the Scotch and
Welsh cattle. After the railways were made they
were all brought up by them, and the mode of
transacting business changed entirely. A man travel-
ling up by the coach two or three hundred miles
required some rest before returning, and necessarily
stayed a night or two in the town; but when he
could come up from Scotland in ten or eleven hours,
sitting quietly all night in a railway carriage, or
perhaps in a sleeping-car, he could drop down to
Barnet by eleven o'clock, go through the whole fair,
buy all he wanted, leave the town again at one
or two o'clock, and start for Scotland the same
night.

In nothing, perhaps, has so great a revolution ever
THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 59

 

taken place as in travelling during the last sixty
or seventy years, both by land and water. Then
our mails used to be conveyed abroad in sailing
vessels, taking months to perform their voyages, with
the uncertainties attendant upon wind and weather ;
now they are conveyed regularly in as many weeks
by splendid steamers running to all countries in the
world; and a person having a month’s holiday thinks
nothing of going to America, getting across from
Liverpool to New York in seven days—about the
same time it would have taken to go to the North of
Scotland and back, travelling day and night con-
tinuously by mails or coaches.

Coming nearer home, and descending to the humble
transit from London to Gravesend of those desirous
of ‘spending a happy day’ at Rosherville Gardens,
the only means of arriving at that Elysium was
either by coach along the road, occupying nearly
three hours, or by one of the rival companies’
steamers, which in those days were distinguished as
the Star and Diamond, the funnels of the vessels
being painted in black and white, so as clearly
to denote to which company they belonged. They
were wooden boats, and very different from the
fast-cutting iron vessels now employed in the same
service. The Gravesend coaches were not very
numerous, especially if you omit the long ones
60 THE COACHING AGE.

 

running to Dover; their fares, too, were considerably
higher-than the steamers ; and then on the coaches
the passengers could not have the ‘ tea and shrimps,’
which seemed to form an indispensable adjunct to the
trip by water.

The Dover Road was never distinguished by any
very fast coaches on it, the short distance from
‘London, only seventy-one miles, rendering a high
rate of speed unnecessary to accomplish the journey
in the day; and the road being hilly, was against
coaches being timed at a very fast pace. Perhaps
‘about the fastest on that road was one of Chaplin’s,
the ‘Tally Ho,’ which: went from the Spread Eagle
in Gracechurch Street to Sittingbourne, forty miles,
every day, including Sundays. It reached town
between ten and eleven at night, was a favourite
conveyance, and largely patronized by the Kentish
farmers, who could leave their homes at five or six
o'clock on Sunday afternoon, get their night’s rest,
and be on the spot for the early markets in London
at Smithfield or Mark Lane. Cattle and sheep were
then driven through the streets on Sunday night to
market; and away from it all day during Monday ;
and the notorious bull in a china shop was then not
unfrequently an actual fact, as many shopkeepers in
the streets about Smithfield could testify to their cost

and annoyance.
THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 61

 

Recurring to the time a journey from Scotland to
London used to occupy, the directions issued by a
large hotel proprietor for the benefit of his patrons
may not be out of place. In addition to the towns
to be passed through, together with the names of the
inns, innkeepers, and distances from place to place,
which I give below, he informed the ‘ nobility,
commercial gentlemen and the public’ that he had
constantly on hand ‘an extensive stock of the finest
old wines, spirits, ete, etc.’ Last, but not least,
he further informed them that there were ‘ excellent
stables and coach-houses’ attached to his establish-
ment, with ‘handsome post-chaises with dickies,
superior horses, and careful drivers.’ What the
‘handsome post-chaises with dickies’ were like I
don’t quite know; they certainly must have been
a departure from the orthodox English old post-chaise,
which had no sort of convenience at the back, either
for the conveyance of luggage or passengers ; indeed,
there were sometimes rows of spikes across the hind
-axle, so that no boys or casual foot-passengers along the
road could jump up behind and sit on it. The dickies
referred to probably corresponded with what used to
be called ‘the rumble,’ and were seats at the back of
gentlemen’s private travelling-carriages, intended for
the conveyance of James and Mary Ann, who travelled
with their master and mistress—the occupants of the
62 THE COACHING AGE,

 

inside of the carriage. In such cases the footman had
to pay for the post-horses at the different changes,
the post-boys, turnpikes, and all incidental disburse-
ments during the journey, without troubling his
master.

The innkeeper’s plan of stating the distance from
one place to another was attended with this ad-
vantage, that it enabled the traveller at once to
ascertain the correctness of the charges made for post-
ing, which was always calculated by the mile. Ona
main road there were always milestones; the distance
was well known, and easily checked if any extra
charge were made. On cross roads, however, where
there were not always milestones, I fancy the post-
master’s miles were occasionally very short—a road
which by actual measurement would have made only
ten miles being by the elasticity of the postmaster’s
conscience extended to twelve, very much in the
same way as in the measurements of his liquids he
sold by the ‘reputed pint’ or ‘ quart,’ the one being a
trifle over an imperial half pint, and the other some-
what over the imperial pint. Be it clearly under-
stood, however, that I do not for a moment impute
dishonesty to the race of old innkeepers, for whom I
entertain a high degree of veneration, having every
reason to do so, after a somewhat lengthened personal
acquaintance with them.
 

 

 

THE OLD COACHING ROADS. 63
THE TRAVELLERS’ GUIDE.
From Edinburgh to London.
INNKEEPERS’
TOWNS. INNS. Wrscee: Mies.
To ‘

Haddington......... Bell nissssvcureecn sees Mitchell ...... 17
Dunbar ............ Lauderdale Arms..| Murray ...-.. lL
Renton ............ Renton Inn ...... Mitchell ...... 14
Berwick ............ King’s Arms ...... Mitchell ...... 16
Belford ........... Bell cowainis sierian ones Sanderson ....J 15
Alnwick ............ WALL sor scageoreas. Wilson ...... 14
Morpeth ............ Queen’s Head...... Sunderland..| 19
Neweastle ......... Queen’s Head...... Dodsworth...) 14
Durham ............ Wheatsheaf ...... Ward ......... 15
Rushyford ......... Wheatsheaf ...... Hoult ......... 9
Darlington ......... King’s Head ...... Scott ..... 2... 9
Northallerton ...... Golden Lion ...... Hurst scisevees 16
Boroughbridge ..... Crown ........6.5. Fretwell...... 19
Wetherby ......... Asigel si. enceckececete Clementshaw| 12
Ferrybridge......... SWAN. ...0.. 008 sesame Hall. ssissreiies 17
Doncaster ......... Angel ... ccc inascecas Day  astseseen 15
Barnby Moor ...... Bell sc acer veswen ews Clarke ...... 14
Scarthing Moor ....| Black Lion......... Pearce ...... 12
Newark .........-.. Kingston Arms ...| Lawton ...... lz
Grantham ......... Angel sacarsne eas ses Dunhill ...... 14
Witham Common .| Bull ............... Sturtle ...... 10
Stamford............ George .......c.06 Faweett ...... 10
Stilton sieeve verse es BU cesta aensat Potts ......... 14
Buckden ............ George ..........5. Scarborough.; 14
Biggleswade ...... TH, ceremonies Knight ...... 14
Stevenage ......... SWE. ccisis amanmainen Cass ssiccees 14
Hatfield ............ Salisbury Arms...) Bryan......... 12
Barnet covcaescs ces os Green Man......... Newman...... 9
London ..........+5 12

395

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directions such as these must have been very
useful to a stranger performing a long journey at
64 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the time when they were issued, which was in the
year 1832. Knowing the names of the different inns
along the road at which to stop, and if desired remain
for the night, was also a convenience, and reminds
one of a somewhat similar plan adopted on Taut’s
map of the Thames, where a drawing of an egg-cup
attached to any place indicates that beds are provided
there. an

I could say much of the @omfort and hospitality
one used to meet with at the innkeepers’ houses.
“AVGHIMIE SONIM AHL NO STIVW dO NOISSaHO0Ud

‘duit qaeyuey yay aap ssabumyg re

 
CHAPTER IV.
PROCESSION OF THE MAILS.

A coop deal has been written from time to time
about the procession of mail-coaches running out of
London, which used to take place annually on the
birthday of the reigning sovereign.

It assembled in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where such a
display would, in those days, create a considerable
sensation. These were not the meets of a four-in-
hand coaching club such as we have now, and
although they were in some respects similar, the
procession of the mails was not such a fashionable
sight. There was, moreover, less occasion for
crowding together either of carriages or spectators
on foot; from the circumstance of the procession
passing through some of the squares and principal
thoroughfares at the West End, the residents of
houses on the route could see the whole display from
the balconies or windows of their own houses.

A printed official programme for the order of the
procession was issued by the Earl of Lichfield for the

5
66 THE COACHING AGE.

 

17th of May, 1838, he being the Postmaster-General.
In order to render the procession more imposing, a
horseman was placed here and there, and in front of
some of the coaches, as appears in the programme,
which ran thus :

ORDER OF THE PROCESSION

OF

Her Masesty’s Mart Coacues, 17TH May, 1838.

Two Horsemen.

Liverpool Chaplin Swan with Two Necks.

Manchester $s ” ”

A Horseman.

Bristol Chaplin zi 9

Devonport ” ” ”
A Horseman.

Halifax Chaplin i 44

Holyhead ” ” ”
A Horseman.

Portsmouth Chaplin is 44

Stroud

=a: ” ”

A Horseman.

Edinburgh Sherman Bull and Mouth.
Exeter ‘ 5 aa

A Horseman,
Glasgow Sherman - 53 a
Leeds Hy » ”

Worcester 35 ” ”
PROCESSION OF THE MAILS. 67

 

Bath - - Chaplin - Spread Eagle, Gracechurch
Street.
Hull -

” ” ”
A Horseman.
Norwich, by Ipswich Chaplin

A Horseman,

Lynn and Wells Fagg ‘Bell and Crown.
Poole, by Southampton is as
A Horseman.
Dover Horne Golden Cross, Charing
Cross.
Gloucester

” ” ”

A Horseman.

Hastings Gray - Bolt in Tun, Fleet Street.
Louth, by Boston - Mountain - Saracen’s Head, Snow Hill.
A Horseman.

Birmingham Hearn King’s Arms, Snow Hill.
Brighton Gilbert Blossoms Inn, Lawrence

Lane.

A Horseman.
Norwich, by Newmarket Nelson Dull Inn, Aldgate.
The above coaches will assemble in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and
proceed [here follows the route at the West End], returning to

St. Martin’s le Grand into the North Gate of the Post Office

Yard.
GEORGE LOUIS,

Surveyor and Superintendent.
On the day of the procession Messrs. Vidler and
. Parratt, the contractors for supply of the mail-coaches,
5—2
68 THE COACHING AGE.

2

used to send the proprietors and others of their
friends invitations, which in the King’s reign ran

thus :
Kine’s BIRTHDAY.

Messrs. Vidler and Parratt request the pleasure of Mr.’.:......
company on Thursday, the 28th May, to a cold collation at
3 o’clock, and to see the procession of the nual Coaches.

Mill Bank Row,
Westminster.

This probably was the most agreeable communica-
tion that the London proprietor received from Messrs.
Vidler in the course of the year, the others consisting
of bills drawn upon him quarterly, at three, six, or
nine months, and sent to him for acceptance, drawn
in advance for the amount that would be due from
the proprietor as mileage for the use of the mail-
coaches furnished by Messrs. Vidler under their.con-
tract with the Postmaster-General : they did not,
however, consider him as actually guaranteeing the
payment of the mileage. With the London proprie-
tors Messrs. Vidler did not find any difficulty, but
they did sometimes with ‘those in the country, when,
as a last resource, Messrs. Vidler applied to Mr.
Johnson, the superintendent at the General Post Office,
and a letter from him generally had the desired effect.

When a fresh mail was put upon a road out of
London, Messrs. Vidler drew bills upon the London
proprietor at three, six, and nine months in anticipa-
PROCESSION OF THE MAILS. 69

 

tion; after the expiration of that time they drew
upon him quarterly, but still in advance. In order,
however, to provide against the contingency of the
mail ‘being taken off the road, or the coaches not
being duly provided, B. W. Horne, of the Golden
‘Cross, used to take the precaution, when the bills
were left at his counting-house for acceptance, of
writing across them, ‘ For work if done.’ So if there
was no mail there was.no bill to pay.

The other claim which Messrs. Vidler used to make
on the proprietors was in what were called their bills
for incidents, sent in once or twice a year for broken
glass, splinter bars, or minor accidents, which might
occur from the mail running against anything and
being damaged. Unlike the arrangements entered
into between the coach-proprietors and coach-builders
for providing their ordinary stage-coaches, the latter
furnished the leader-bars, whereas on the mails the
proprietors furnished them.

The procession was certainly a gay spectacle, with
either entirely new or newly painted and varnished
coaches, and as about thirty-six new ones were built
every year, it could be easily arranged that they
should make their first appearance on the day of the
annual procession. This was all Messrs. Vidler’s part
in it.

Next came providing the horses to draw the coaches,
70 THE COACHING AGE.

 

and the harness, which was also new, or nearly so.
This devolved on the proprietors who horsed the mails,
and they were by no means behind-hand in making a
display in their department. Many horses, if not
entire teams, if a proprietor had not a sufficient
number of showy ones, such as he wished to appear
in the mails he horsed, were borrowed, and gentlemen
who had their own four-in-hands would, it was said,
sometimes lend them for the occasion, feeling rather
proud of this opportunity of exhibiting them. This
completed the next part of the procession.

Lastly came the uniforms of the guards and coach-
men. These were provided by the Postmaster-
General, and were the same as may be seen at the
present day worn by the guards on the mail-trains.
All the guards were provided with uniforms, in which
they were required to appear nightly at the General
Post Office, St. Martin’s le Grand, ready to go out
with their mails; but only the coachmen whose turn
it might be to go out with the mails on the night of
the procession were provided with uniforms, towards
the expense of which I believe they had to make
some contribution.

The original Mr. Vidler, together with his succes-
sors and partners, Messrs. Parratt, had a monopoly in
the supply of the mail-coaches throughout the king-
dom for a great many years; the Bristol mail,
PROCESSION OF THE MAILS. 71

 

the first out of London, was started in 1784, and in
the year 1827 the contract was with the firm of
Messrs. Vidler and Parratt, Mr. Vidler, who died in
the previous year, having, it was said, had the contract
for upwards of forty years; and it continued in the
hands of Vidler and Parratt up to the year 1836,
when the alteration was made in the build of the
coaches, and the country divided into three districts,
as suggested by Mr. Louis, surveyor and superintend-
ent of mail-coaches at the time the alterations were
in hand. The districts he recommended were :

 

Southern 4,644 miles.

Midland - 5,350 ,,

Northern » 3,288 ,,
Total 13,282

In 1835 the number of miles performed by Vidler’s
mail-coaches per day was upwards of thirteen thousand,
comprising nearly the whole of the mail-roads in
England and Scotland. It is evident that the con-
tractors must have made a good thing out of the mail-
contracts at not less than threepence a mile, besides
the annual charge of about £2,400 for oiling, greasing,
and taking the coaches backwards and forwards from
their factory to the inns from which they started.

The throwing open the contract for the supply of
mails in future, together with some other differences
72 THE COACHING AGE.

 

with the Postmaster-General, appears to have given
Mr. Vidler some annoyance, and from. what was con-
sidered his extraordinary conduct, a recommendation
was made to the Treasury not to accept any tender
from him; thus terminated in 1836 the connection
between his firm and,the Postmaster-General, which
had existed for about fifty years.

Not exactly connected with the procession of the
mails, but with the passing of the day mail on its
way up from Dover to London, is the following
anecdote by a gentleman who was a passenger at the
time. I cannot do better than give it in his own words:

‘The mail was supposed to belong to the Queen
—Her Majesty’s mails—and everyone had to make
way. I saw a great lark at Chatham. The soldiers
were marching down the military road which crossed
the main road. Traffic always stopped for the soldiers :
the mail could not get through, and Elwin, the
guard, with whom I was sitting behind,* insisted
on the Queen’s right. ‘“ D—— the soldiers! drive
through them, Watson !” he cried to the coachman.
So the coachman went for them, and the soldiers had
to give way, amidst a fair amount of bad language
from the officers, which was freely and smartly re-
turned by the guard and one or two passengers,
especially as the officer had a glass in his eye.’

* The Dover day mail, as also the Brighton, used to carry
passengers behind on a seat facing the guard.
(| MOS2OY Ways, YONoLYs eAIMgT, ‘+++ “LHOIY S, agnN® AHL NO ONILSISNI
“UNL EP ssabunyg ¢

dus

 

JPY! iP

 

 
‘CHAPTER V.
PIKES AND MILESTONES.

Pixes—but not the animal that voraciously seizes
the bait of the angler, and the singular and plural of
which seems to be the same, as you never hear a
man say he caught so many pikes, but only so many
pike or brace of pike.

The pikes on which I purpose making a few
observations are what we used-to see erected at
various places along the roads where we travelled,
and to which our notice was particularly attracted by ©
the circumstance of having, if travelling in a vehicle
or on horseback, to shell out, as it was commonly
called—+.e., to pay toll. Among persons in ordinary
conversation they were denominated turnpikes, but
they were also known by the shorter term in common
use down in the country districts of ‘pike,’ while a
post-boy almost invariably called them ‘gates ;’ and
if you asked him before starting in a post-chaise
what tolls there were to pay, he would tell you there
were two or three gates, and that you paid at such a
74 THE COACHING AGE.

 

gate, and that cleared the next, and then you had to
pay again at the next gate. The pike was also a
standard of locality or distance in rural districts,
as on your inquiring of an intelligent native or any
local cottager the whereabouts of a place or the
distance to it, he would probably inform you that it
was near the pike, or the first turn after you got
through the pike, nearly*opposite the pike, or a mile
from it. If you chanced to be in Somersetshire,
and made inquiry as to the way of the agri-
cultural labourer, you would very likely get some
such answer from him as the following ; but as every-
one is not conversant with Somersetshire dialect, I sub-
join a translation. Inquiring pedestrian: ‘ Which is
the way to Satterly village? Agricultural labourer :
‘Ye do gar alang thic thar h’rod till e’ d’ cum handy
to the pike, then e’ d’ tarn arf to the laft and kape
arn for aboot of a haff-marl ar nigh apon dree-
quarters aboove the gite as do stand agin the public
housén, and thar ’ell zee a vinger-post as ‘ll pint the
wi.’ Which being translated is-—You go along up
this road till you come handy to the pike, then you
turn off to the left and keep on for about a half-
mile or handy upon three-quarters above the gate
that stands against the public-house, and there you'll
see a finger-post that will point the way.

The origin or institution of turnpikes is, I believe,
PIKES AND MILESTONES. 15

 

wrapt in some mystery; before they were. estab-
lished the inhabitants of the various parishes through
which roads or highways passed were bound to repair
them, but under some ancient system of tenures the
lord of the soil frequently claimed the privilege of
receiving tolls from all who travelled along his high-
way. Nor was this esteemed a mere bounty, for he
was liable, in consideration of such toll, to keep the
way in good order, and in some places even to defend
the passengers from depredation. Acts of Parliament
relating to turnpikes are to be found in the reign of
George II., and indeed earlier; but in the reign of
George III. an Act was passed, which was known as
‘The General Turnpike Road Act.’ This, however,
was superseded by the General Turnpike Act now
in existence, passed in the reign of George IV., and
embodying the provisions of the previous repealed
Acts.

In addition to the tolls which constituted a fund
for the maintenance of the roads, there also was the
benefit derived from what was known by the term of
‘statute labour,’ which imposed upon certain persons
the duty of providing an amount of labour or cartage
of materials in the course of the year, or payment of
a composition in money in lieu of it. Statute labour
and money compositions in lieu of it for the three
years previous to 1837 amounted to upwards of
76 . THE COACHING AGE.

 

forty-two thousand pounds; but it was shortly after-
wards done away with, although from the circumstance
that many parties in the country were unaware of
this fact, they continued doing the work or paying
the composition. The turnpike surveyors were
only too glad to avail themselves of any ignorance
on the subject, to continue this aid to the roads as
long as they could, especially as tolls were greatly
diminishing in almost every direction, consequent
upon the opening of additional railways, the road
traffic being thus diverted, and the amount of the
tolls, of course, falling off.

The total of bonded and floating debts of the turn-
pikes in 1836 amounted to about a million and a
‘half, and among the large number of trusts through-
out the kingdom some were in a flourishing condition
and able to meet their annual payments, including
the interest on their bonds, and keep their roads in
repair ; but others were in a vastly different state, and
Sir James McAdam, the famous road-surveyor, once
stated that he knew some roads upon which there
were sixty years of interest due. It was the practice
upon many trusts to convert unpaid interest into
principal, granting bonds for the unpaid interest as
principal, thereby increasing the yearly sum to be
paid for interest ; and as long as the creditor got a
bond, he looked forward to its being paid by the
PIKES AND MILESTONES. 77

 

public or the Government in some shape at some time
or other. It is needless to say that in many instances
these hopes have proved altogether delusive. As
you travel along any of the main-roads from London
—north, south, east, or west—you will every here
and there come to a small square brick building,
probably a mile or some miles from any town, and a
considerable distance from even a village. The
bicyclist or youthful pedestrian wonders what on
earth can have induced any man to erect a cottage
in such an out-of-the-way place, and bewilders him-
self in considering what advantage is likely to accrue
to any person occupying a cottage in such a locality.
This probably leads him to make inquiry of the
inhabitant, or if, as is not unlikely, the cottage is
locked up, and the inhabitant gone to his daily labour,
resort is had to the first person met along the road.
The inquirer is then informed that it was originally
built for a turnpike-house, and that many years since
a turnpike-gate—or, as it will doubtless be called,
‘a pike ’—used to stand there. All traces, however,
of anything like a gate, together with the gate-posts,
and board containing a table of the tolls which
used to be taken, have long ago been removed, the
cottage alone standing to mark the locality of the de-
parted pike. By-the-bye, while mentioning the table
of tolls, it has often occurred to me what an apparent
78 THE COACHING AGE.

 

contradiction was sometimes published on these
boards. At every turnpike there used to be affixed a
large board painted very much after this fashion :

‘SLOCUM TRUST.

‘For every horse, mule, donkey,’ etc., and after
setting forth almost every description of animal likely
to pass through a turnpike-gate, and the amount of
toll to be paid in respect of each, and also a similar
description of every kind of vehicle, and the tolls in
respect of it, concluding with the short but expressive

notice—
“NO TRUST,’

Although the turnpike trustees gave no trust, it
will be manifest from the large amount of debts
many of them were encumbered with that they did
not fail to avail themselves of such opportunities as
they possessed of obtaining trust, as many of their
creditors to their sorrow eventually discovered. So
long, however, as tolls were to be received, creditors
had the power, if not paid their interest, of seizing
the tolls and keeping them till their debts were paid,
and this in priority to the appropriation of the tolls
for the maintenance of the roads.

With the disappearance of the turnpike-gates the
little document of ancient origin yclept a ‘ turnpike
ticket’ has also become unnecessary ; the diminutive
PIKES AND MILESTONES. 79

 

piece of paper about the same size as a railway
ticket, with the name of the gate and the side-
bars which it cleared printed on it, is no longer put
into our hands as we travel along the road. The
trouble one had on arriving at the pike where the
ticket was to be produced or given up, to fish it up
out of one’s pocket when one’s fingers were numbed
with cold or one’s gloves drenched with rain, used,
I fear, very often to cause one to give vent to any-
thing but blessings on turnpike tickets or pike-
keepers. On the other hand, some of the old pike-
keepers could have told you that they knew from
experience that boys going home from school in the
old yellow post-chaises carried pea-shooters, and used
them in passing through the pike if no stoppage was
necessary, or after a start had been made again,
totally regardless, too, of whether the pike-keeper
were of the feminine gender. Stone-breakers by the
side of the road could testify to a similar experi-
ence, as could also various pedestrians, whose only
means of retaliation consisted, perhaps, in sending a
stone rattling against the back of the chaise, on the
principle of the man in the Black Country, ‘‘Eave
arf a brick at ’im.’

It is a curious fact that before the principal lines
of railway were opened for any distance out of
London, and tolls had very seriously diminished,
80 THE COACHING AGE.

 

several persons supposed to have very extensive
knowledge of the subject actually contemplated the
possibility of railways eventually failing, and the
roads then being found to have got out of condition,
and perhaps into an almost useless state. It is scarcely
necessary to point out the utter groundlessness of
their apprehensions.

Nearly allied to the pikes were the old milestones
which you used to meet with as you travelled along
the road, but on the turnpike-roads only ; measuring
the roads in order to ascertain where milestones
ought to be placed, and providing and keeping them
in repair, I suppose made them too expensive to be
erected on highways or parish roads. Hence their
absence, greatly to the inconvenience of travellers, as
those who had to traverse by-roads much must often
have experienced.

The ideas of the rural mind as to distance are
something extraordinary. It is by no means an
unusual thing when you inquire of a rustic male or
female how far it is to a given place, to be told the
time it takes to walk there, in spite of entire ignorance
as to whether your pedestrian capabilities may be
those of a Weston able to do some six or seven miles
an hour, or of a less expeditious character, compassing
only three miles in the same period.

It is rather amusing if you chance to be walking on
PIKES AND MILESTONES. 8t

 

a thoroughly rural cross road, where you meet but
very few persons, to ask each of them the distance to
the place of your destination, say four miles off.

Their answers will probably be after this style:
No. 1, ‘A little better than three miles.’ You walk
about half a mile, when you meet No. 2, who puts the
distance down at ‘about four miles;’ while No. 3, whom
you come upon about a hundred yards farther, will
make it ‘nearer three than four.’ After walking
another quarter of a mile it will probably be reduced
by No. 4 to ‘about two ;’ and as likely as not, the next
one, No. 5, will return to the original distance, and
put it down as ‘handy upon four.’ The result, I need
scarcely observe, leaves you in an utter state of
fog, removed only when you have actually walked the
distance, and formed, as best you could, your own
opinion upon it. .

The general appearance of the milestones, even
along the main-roads from London, is thoroughly
venerable and in many instances somewhat dilapidated,
especially those consisting wholly of stone, which
seem to indicate entire neglect for many years past,
and a necessity for having the letters and numbers
recut and painted in order to render them legible even
by close inspection. Many there are on which you
cannot make out anything beyond a letter or two, ora
figure here and there, the stone having become so

6
82 THE COACHING AGE.

 

corroded and worn under the influence of the weather ;.
so that they have long ceased to be of the slightest
assistance to persons travelling along the road.
Those distance-indicators constructed of iron, with
raised letters, are in a different condition, still. being
of service ; but many of them would be much im-
proved if painted white, with the letters and figures
black.

It seems a pity that these landmarks should be
allowed to drift into a state of entire decay and
uselessness, having originally been set up after
considerable trouble and expense incurred in order
to ascertain accurately the relative positions in which
they were to be placed. Although so much of the
traffic has gone off the main turnpike-roads, they
are still used to a considerable extent in many parts,
and the want of legible milestones is a source of
much inconvenience to the travellers of the present
time, albeit they are not so numerous a body as
formerly.

The expense of the maintenance of what, under the
present management of highways, are designated
‘main-roads’ being partly thrown upon Government
funds, a sufficient sum could surely be provided to
meet the trifling expenditure necessary to restore the
milestones to a condition of utility. Not long since
I saw two lying by the roadside, one bearing the date
PIKES AND MILESTONES. 83

 

1743; they merely wanted setting up again in the
ground. In mafy places where there is a convergence
of important roads, there are, if I may use the
expression, elaborate milestones, indicating for the
traveller's guidance the distances up and down the
roads to the neighbouring. places and London.

Such an one there is at Alconbury Hill in Hunting-
donshire, just by Alconbury, near which was an
extensive posting and coaching establishment, kept
for many years by John Warsop—until, in fact, the
railway, combined with the cheap travelling by
steamer to Hull and other places which diverted the
traffic from the road, abolished his business.

The heavy duties on post-horses made it quite
impossible for postmasters to compete with the
steamers, which were entirely free from duties of
any description whatever.

During the session of Parliament, even after the
steamers had considerably reduced his business,
Warsop used to have fourteen or fifteen pairs of post-
horses out in a day; at other times perhaps not
half that number; while for two or three days, or for
several days together, not a pair would be moving on
the road. With the posting the coaching also of
course fell off to a very great extent, and the stabling
of horses going up and down the road, together with
the company staying at the house, was lost.

6—2
84 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Warsop said his custom consisted entirely of
travellers going direct from north to south. He
was not in a town, and had no other business
whatever—no drinking company of any description.
His business had depended totally on the nobility
and gentry travelling; and sometimes, even if he
had not much posting on the roads for several days
and. nights, his stabling was full of horses belonging
to noblemen travelling with their own carriages
from north to south, who subsequently journeyed
by rail or steamboat.

To show the connection between Warsop’s coach-
ing and posting business, he said that if he had not
been connected with coaching—which some years
previously had cost him a great deal of money, and
would have caused the sacrifice of an enormous
amount if then given up—he could not have sup-
ported his posting establishment.

Without wishing to have the burthen of taxation
removed from his own shoulders and placed on those of
another, Warsop desired to be put on such a footing
that he could convey noblemen and gentlemen and
all travelling direct from the north. He had no
other trade or business but that of occupier of the
soil, and if he could not use the provender that he
grew upon it, he could not live at his inn.

His opinion was that nothing but an entire abolition
PIKES AND MILESTONES. 85

 

of the post-horse duties could save him and men
situated like himself, and enable them to increase
their business on the road; then, gentlemen would
travel from the north more frequently, and perhaps
at times of the year when business in general was
very dead, so that they would have an opportunity
to compete with the steamers, and a certain number
of customers might travel by road perhaps three
times a year instead of once or twice.

I have given a somewhat detailed account of Mr.
Warsop’s position with regard to posting and coach-
ing, as his inn stood just where two or three different
roads to London met, in about as good a locality as
could well be selected for a business like his.

For the information and benefit of travellers either
passing by or stopping at his inn, it happened that
a stone pillar stood near, much larger than the
ordinary milestone ; and as it contained full directions,
I think that I cannot do better than give a copy of
all that was inscribed on it:

To London 68 miles, through Buckden, Biggleswade, and Hatfield.

To Buckden 7 miles.
» Stilton - IS oy

To London 64 miles, through Huntingdon, Royston, and Ware.
To Huntingdon- 5 miles.

To London 72 miles, through Cambridge.
To Cambridge - 21 miles.
» Stilton - oa
86 THE COACHING AGE.

 

In order to show that Mr. Warsop was not alone
in the opinion he expressed as to the severe pressure
of the post-horse duties: upon the postmasters, and
the unfair competition with untaxed steamers which
they had to contend against, I will quote what Mr.
Cass, who carried on a large posting business at
Stevenage in Hertfordshire, on the Great North
Road, said :

He was obliged to keep up the same establishment,
as there was a line of houses having the connection
of families travelling, whom he was accustomed to
receive from about the middle of July to September ;
and all he wanted was to be put on an equality
with travelling by steam. Although managing his
business in the most economical manner, it would be
impossible to continue without a chance of profit.
Indeed, his trade would be entirely annihilated unless
relief was afforded by the abolition of the duty.
The property was his own, and but for that he could
not continue to live there; the business would not
admit of his paying a rent for it.
if competition by steamers was having a ruinous
effect on the traffic on the north roads, how much
more so was it on the roads into Kent, where
steamers were running from London—
PIKES AND MILESTONES. 87

 

To Gravesend for 1s. and Is. 6d.
», Dover 3 OS.

» Ramsgate ,, 1s. 6d.

» Boulogne ,, 3s. 6d. and 4s.

From the much greater cheapness of travelling by
steamer than by road, an endeavour was made to
reach some point where the former mode of con-
veyance would be available—and thus persons
travelling from Maidstone to London would go to
Gravesend for half-a-crown, and thence to London
for eighteenpence, paying only four shillings for the
whole journey, whereas travelling the whole way by
coach would cost six shillings.

With the duties removed the coach-proprietors
considered that they might be able to compete with
the steamers; but with the railways it was quite
a different matter : they did not think any reraoval
of duties would enable them to withstand such for-
midable rivals, and the correctness of this opinion
was subsequently amply proved. |
CHAPTER VI.
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES.

I po not propose to enter into a description of
the different varieties of vehicles in use towards
the end of the last century, and passing under the
denomination of ‘Flying Coaches,’ ‘Stage Chaises,.’
‘Glass machines hung on steel springs,’ etc. They
have been elaborately depicted in numerous illustra-
tions to be found in old books treating of the
travelling of the period ; and from the length of time
which has since elapsed I cannot, of course, give any
account of them from personal knowledge, or add
anything to what is contained in those works. The
improvement of the roads naturally rendered more
expeditious traffic practicable, and hence it became
necessary to supersede the tremendously heavy and
lumbering coaches by the introduction of some of a
much lighter character, and capable of being drawn
with safety at a greatly increased rate of speed. Ruts,
or rather trenches, letting the wheels in up to the
axles, so that six or more horses were required to
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. 89

 

pull the ponderous coaches out, would have dragged
the modern stage-voach all to pieces. It is somewhat
curious that, although the stage-coach-builders en-
deavoured as much as possible from time to time
to improve the construction of their coaches in order
to make them light, strong, safe and appropriate
for the conveyance of a number of passengers and
their luggage, the mail-coach-builder made very
little alteration indeed in those he built by contract
for the Postmaster-General from the reign of
George III. up to the time of the contract passing
into other hands in 1836.

Previously, however, to adopting a new pattern, the
Postmaster-General very properly consulted persons
scientifically conversant with the construction of
coaches and their various parts, especially the wheels,
and also the leading stage-coach-builders in London,
obtaining in this way a great deal of very interesting
and valuable information. He observed, that in
order to form right opinions on plans of coaches, he
should begin by acquiring an accurate knowledge
of the use of wheels. Nothing is more common, he
said, than to meet with persons who have formed
the most decided opinions on the construction of
carriages, without having examined the properties of
wheels, or being aware that they are treated by
mathematicians as powers, and that all their properties
go THE COACHING AGE.

 

as such are exactly settled, and admit of no dispute
among men of science; and hence he directed his
attention to the height of the wheels of a coach, and
whether the load should be principally over the
fore or hind wheels. It was considered that large
wheels diminished the labour of the horses in draught,
so that it would be much more advantageous to make
the four wheels of a coach nearly of the same size,
especially looking to the fact that, according to the
usual mode of loading coaches, the heaviest weight was
on the small fore-wheels, pressing them .deeper into
the ground, and thereby very much increasing the
labour of the horses. As the running of a coach
well or otherwise greatly depends on the way in
which the hind-wheels follow the fore ones, and as
this depends in some degree upon the length of
the perch, it was said that the perch should be made
as short as it could with safety, regard being had
to the greater tendency of a coach to upset with
a short perch than with along one. While on the
subject of wheels, the breadth of the tires naturally
came under notice as a very important feature. The
tires of the mails were then one inch and three
quarters in breadth, while some of the heavy slow
coaches had tires two inches and a quarter broad,
but the fast coaches one inch and a half.

The desirability of using springs was a point that
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. gt

 

received a good deal of attention, not only as re-
garded the ease and comfort of the travellers, but as
facilitating the draught and getting the coach over
all obstructions, preservation of the roads, safety
of the goods conveyed, and duration of the carriages.
The advantage of springs was said to be equal to
one horse in four—by no means inconsiderable, and
showing that the interior of the old mail-coach could
not have been a very comfortable place for a long
journey. I cannot do better than give an account of
it by a. gentleman who, from his minute details, must,
I think, have gained his knowledge from practical
experience. He said:

‘Much requires to be done to improve the mail-
coaches so as to render them less fatiguing to
travellers going long distances. The whole weight of
a traveller's body is supported on the projecting bones
at the root of the spinal column, which itself is
unsupported throughout its whole length, as from
the perpendicular back given to the seats the
shoulder-blades are the only parts of the body which
can touch them. If in the new coaches the seats
should be of the breadth proposed, and if they are
made one and a half inches higher in front than
at the back, then the whole of the thigh will
find support, and by the action of its muscles
much relief will be given to the other parts. A
92 THE COACHING AGE.

 

considerable rake or slope should be given to the
backs of the seats, and the stuffing should be so
arranged as to support the lumbar vertebrae, which are
always those which suffer most on a journey. Much
also may be done to give relief to the traveller
by improving the hand-straps: long pendulous
straps with their loops adjustable to different heights
would give great relief by affording a rest for the
elbow of an arm passed through them.’

The defects above pointed out sufficiently indicate
that the journey of an inside passenger from Edin-
burgh to London, occupying a period of forty-five
hours and thirty-nine minutes, must have been
attended with a great amount of physical discomfort,
doubtless causing great mental irritability and dis-
quietude. Unions with their ‘outdoor relief’ and
‘indoor relief’ did not exist in those days, although
they were just coming into use; but I should think
that through passengers for a long journey inside
a mail must have stood much more in need of
some indoor relief than many of the inmates of
unions.

Clearly the time had arrived when the construction
of the mails was about to undergo alterations in
which improvements for the inside were not to be
lost sight of. Indeed, a large coach-builder in
London admitted that the convenience of travellers
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. 93

 

had been very little attended to in arranging the size
of the bodies and the height and depth of the seats
inside the mails.

Among the persons consulted by the Postmaster-
General on the construction of coaches, was Dr.
Lardner, a highly scientific man; Sir Henry Parnell,
who had given a good deal of attention to the subject ;
and Mr. Peter Purcell, an extensive coach and mail
builder in Dublin.

With reference to the improvements which had
taken place in the roads under McAdam and Telford,
Dr. Lardner was of opinion that a corresponding
change had not been made in the form and structure
of the carriages running upon them, which had
not received the benefit of the application of the
same scientific skill, In addition to his remarks
as to the size of wheels, the breadth of tires, and
the advantages of efficient springs, he considered
that the mode in which the load should be
placed on a coach should be in proportion to the
size of the wheels, and hence that a greater part
of it should be thrown on the hind-wheels. Sir
H. Parnell concurred in this, and although it was
the practice of the coach-proprietors to load the
front-boot with heavy luggage, scientific men said
the bulk of the luggage should be kept as far
behind as possible, nothing but carpet-bags and light
94 THE COACHING AGE.

 

packages being put into the fore-boot, so that the
weight should whenever practicable be over the hind-
wheels ; and with the view of still further securing
this object, an iron frame projecting from the bottom
of the hind-boot should be fixed so that extra mail-
bags and heavy luggage might be packed to the
full height, if necessary, of the top of the guard’s
seat.

This plan, however, seems to have omitted any
provision against the risk of the bags being cut off
and carried away in the darkness of the night.

In order to try the draught of carriages a Mr. McNeill
invented an instrument which was found to be
so perfectly fit for the purpose, that experiments
could be made with a certainty of affording accurate
results. The instrument could be fixed to a coach
to which the horses were harnessed, and showed the
actual force or labour they exerted in drawing.
The expense, however, of the experiments, about a
hundred pounds, was more than private individuals
chose to incur, although it was asserted that this
would soon be repaid by the saving which would
be effected by diminishing the labour of horses in
_ drawing stage-coaches, and consequently the expense
of providing and maintaining a sufficient number of
them. The coach-proprietors did not care to take
the matter up, being satisfied apparently with the
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. 95

 

existing system; and the Government being only
concerned in the construction and management of
the mail-coaches, did not think it worth while to
undertake experiments and incur expenses which
in the end would be principally, if not entirely,
for the benefit of the coach-proprietors. Sir Henry
Parnell thought that a series of experiments ought
to have been made by the Government ; that the
expense of conveying the mails might be diminished,
and the travelling by mails increased, by im-
proving the construction of the coaches. Mr.
Purcell, in his observations furnished to the Post-
master-General on mail-coaches, referred principally
to the advantages of coaches without perches ;
and he went rather fully into the subject, giving
some instances derived from his long and extensive
practical experience as a builder. He said: ‘The
coach without the perch possesses three important
advantages over the plan of the mail-coaches now
in use, in point of weight, safety, and economy. They
can be made lighter by doing away with the perch
and other parts with iron attached to them. A
coach may be made nearly two hundredweight lighter ;
the body and boots do not require to be made
stronger for a mail-coach without a perch, and as the
weight of the fore-carriage is about equal in either
case, the additional weight of the perch, beds and
96 THE COACHING AGE.

 

ironwork belonging to them is avoided. In the
second place, a greater degree of safety is obtained
by this plan; the coaches are not so liable to over-
turn, either when running in a direct line, or upon
the lock for the purpose of turning.’ This he said he
had proved by experiment as well as by observation
of the number of accidents which had occurred. The
plan of coaches without perches, he said, was not
only more economical in building, but at the same
time a great saving in necessary repairs. The
fore-carriages with perches were continually getting
out of repair, the ironwork getting loose, wearing
out, or breaking in a short time of running. As
a contractor he experienced great inconvenience from
being compelled to adopt the plan of the mails,
not only from the heavy expenses to which he was
subject, but from the great trouble and difficulty
of keeping the coaches in an effective state in con-
sequence of the immense repairs necessarily attendant
on perch-coaches.

By way of confirmation of his opinion as to the
great advantages of the coaches without perches, he
gave some instances in his business, one being of a
day coach he had had in use for eight years without
any of the timber being renewed. For the Cork
mail—running with twelve outside passengers, includ-
ing coachman and guard, he furnished large coaches
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. 97

 

for the purpose of. carrying the luggage, etc., some
with and some without the perch, and found the
great difference between them. . Those without perches
required very little attention or repair; the others
as they came in required extra repairs, attended with
much expense in order to keep them in a fit
state.

Mr. Purcell also gave a comparative statement of the
running upon the two plans, viz.: The day mail going
to Belfast, carrying twelve outside and four inside
passengers, and weighing eighteen hundredweight,
was built without a perch. It ran for seven months
without a bolt or nut stirring, and he expected would
run for a great while longer without requiring
anything to be done to it, the only expense having
been the ordinary wear and tear of the wheels ; but
the mails, that carried only six outside passengers,
including coachman and guard, were as heavy and
constantly needed repair, and in the space of time
mentioned a perch for a carriage might be worn out.
The coaches without perches, too, were not so liable to
accidents generally, or when they did occur were not
attended with the same danger as the mails were
subject to; for if an elliptic spring broke, it still
continued connected in three out of the four points
of connection, and the coach might safely travel
to the end of its journey; or if an axle-tree broke

7
98 THE COACHING AGE.

 

at any part between the springs, their strong fasten“
ings would prevent the wheels getting away. On
the contrary, if the same accident should happen
to a perch-carriage, the wheel would leave it, and the
coach would most likely upset.

Mr. Purcell appears to have gone very fully into
the question of perch or no perch, and was evidently
very strongly prepossessed in favour of the latter.
The plan, however, was never tried in England,
although Vidler, the contractor for supplying the
mail-coaches, had about two hundred at work; and
when a change was about to be made in the construc-
tion of the mails, and the contract was thrown open
for public competition, the various large stage-coach
builders: built coaches each on their own model and
plan. A premium of a hundred guineas was offered
by the Government for the model or drawings and
description of the best carriage, it being stipulated
that while safety, speed and convenience were to
be particularly attended to in the construction, the
expense must. be kept within moderate limits, so
as not to exceed that of the best stage-coaches.
Several models and designs were accordingly fur-
nished, and some coaches built which were submitted
to the Postmaster-General for his inspection in St.
James’s Square, on an appointed day ; but there was
only one without a perch, an Irish coach, which I
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. , 99

 

“presume was built and sent over by Purcell. It was
not, however, adopted ; nor has the plan of dispensing
with a perch, so far as I am aware, ever been tried for
stage-coaches, or for mails in England.

Mr. McNeill at that time (1885) was surveyor of
the road from London to Holyhead, and being present
at the exhibition of coaches in St. James’s Square,
gave some valuable and interesting information to
the Postmaster-General on the draught of carriage-
springs, and the machine he had invented for testing
the draught of carriages and the resistance on roads.
He was not favourably impressed with the Irish coach,
thinking that a mail-carriage should have a perch.

In the construction and weight of carriages there
appears to have been a great difference of opinion
and uncertainty, up perhaps to nearly the time when
road-mails and stage-coaches weré superseded by the
railways. Persons who horsed the Holyhead mail,
and also kept post-horses, often said that gentlemen’s
carriages, which they also horsed, weighed much
more than mail-coaches or any stage-coaches. This
must have referred to the time when the mail-
coaches had been very much reduced in weight, from
twenty-two or twenty-three hundredweight to little
over seventeen.

Thecoach-masters undoubtedly werethe persons most
deeply interested in the adoption of any plan for facili-

7—2
THE COACHING AGE.

‘100 *

 

tating the draught and diminishing it as far as possible
for the benefit of their horses, and at the same time
of their pockets. They were probably satisfied, so far
as the mails were concerned, that the Postmaster-
‘General, whose object it was to get the mails conveyed
through the country as expeditiously as possible,
should take all. the trouble and responsibility of
deciding upon the carriage to be adopted. Although
the opinions and advice of the coach-masters as
practical men no doubt would have been welcome
and would have received due attention, yet after
all the final decision rested with the Postmaster-
General, and the coach-masters had no alternative
but to put their horses to the coaches furnished to
them. |

There was one exception to the apparent indiffer-
ence manifested by the coach-masters as to any
improvements made either in the mails or stage-
coaches; William Chaplin, the largest coach-pro-
prietor in London, had a coach built with the fore-
wheels of the same height as the hind-wheels. He
took out a patent for it, and expended between four
and five hundred pounds upon it; but, as he said,
somehow or other he could not surmount the pre-
judice against it. It ran beautifully on level ground.
How the turning was managed I could not under-
stand, But I only saw it when at rest in the yard, and
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. Iol

 

I do not think it was ever put into practical use on
any road.

If the coach-masters did not understand much about
the scientific mechanical construction of coaches, or
take much trouble to acquire that knowledge, the
coach-builders do not seem to have been much better
informed, as Chaplin said: ‘I consider the fore-
wheels in the mail-coach being higher, and the hind-
wheels lower than in the ordinary coaches, is an
improvement; and it becomes a question, which I
have never yet met with anyone to solve, what would
be the happy height to adhere to. The coachmakers
are very good workmen, but there is not one in
five hundred—or at least I never met with one—
who could explain upon any mathematical prin-
ciple, or any other sound reasoning, why the thing
should be so or so. They are not great mechanics
by any means; they have heard that a fore-wheel
is better lofty, but none of them can tell you
why.’

No very radical or extensive change seems to have
taken place in the building of stage-coaches, such
as dispensing with a perch or altering the number
or mode of fixing the springs; but more improve-
ments were made in the mails when the contract
passed out of Mr. Vidler’s hands, and the. build was
entirely altered—among other things in the springs,
102 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the old plan of which is now only to be seen on what
are called mail-phaetons, in consequence of their being
after the pattern of the old mails.

When springs were first being used on public
coaches, one of the objections urged against them
was that they would make the coachman’s seat so
easy that he would always be asleep—a not impro-
bable event certainly, in the days when they stopped
at numerous public-houses on the road, and for not a
short time either.

It is said, as regards the width between the wheels
of coaches, that George Stephenson, the great
engineer, fixed on the distance between the rails
on the narrow gauge of railways, which is four feet
eight and a half, from the old mail-coaches, consider-
ing that as the. best standard of balance, combined
with strength, speed and safety.

One would suppose that the engine-drivers and
stokers, travelling many miles daily, would all be
perfectly familiar with the breadth between the
rails; but I was very much surprised, on inquiring
of several while on their engines attached to trains,’
to find that some had not the slightest, and others
had most erroneous notions as to the space. I was
rather amused by one man putting it down at once at
six feet; and on my representing to him that it
could not possibly be so much as that (I knew
CONSTRUCTION OF COACHES. 103

from actual measurement what it was), he said, ‘ Well,
that’s what we always call it.’ When I told him
that that referred to the space between the up and
down rails, he replied that he supposed it did; but
as to the actual measurement, neither he nor his
stoker possessed the least notion. Two of the
drivers of whom I inquired gave the correct dimen-
sions exactly, even to the half inch.
CHAPTER VII.
COACH PROPRIETORS.

REMINISCENCES of the old roads would be very
imperfect without some mention of the persons
whose business consisted in promoting public traffic
along them by providing the means of locomotion
from place to place. This was done by the mail
and coach proprietors and postmasters, a most impor-
tant branch of the community in those days, and
large contributors to the National Exchequer in the
shape of payment of the heavy duties imposed in
various ways on their business, independently of
similar taxes levied upon them in their capacity
of innkeepers, a business carried on by nearly all of
them in combination with coaching.

It is rather singular, and may seem somewhat
contradictory, that the improvement of the roads,
while it greatly facilitated the coaching-work, acted
prejudicially to the innkeepers in some respects.

The improvement of the roads enabled them to
send their coaches along at a speed that would have
COACH PROPRIETORS. TOS

 

been perfectly impossible in the days when the
roads were so bad that additional strength had to be
resorted to in order to extricate vehicles which had
sunk up to the axles in deep ruts and quagmires ; but
the pace being increased, a better class of horse was
necessarily employed, and the greater the speed the
greater the wear and tear of their stock.

With the increased pace travellers began to be
impatient of long and unnecessary delays on the
road and constant stoppages at road-side inns, chiefly,
if not entirely, for the purpose of getting something
to drink ; because at this inn some speciality in the
way of fluid was to be obtained, and at that the land-
lord, or it might be the landlady, was a particular
friend of the coachman, so it would not do to
pass by the house every day without stopping. It
soon became manifest to the travellers that it
was of no use to increase the pace of the coach if
so much time was to be wasted in needless stop-
pages, or an unreasonable time allowed where they
were necessary for the purpose of changing or taking
meals on long journeys; thus the number of the
stoppages being decreased, the innkeepers at whose
houses the changes took place were obliged to
send on the coaches as quickly as possible, without
time being allowed for taking refreshment or doing
anything for the good of the house; so some part
106 THE COACHING AGE.

 

of the custom which had arisen from the coach was
lost to the innkeepers on the road at places between
those where the regular meals were taken. To
promote further expedition the time appointed for
meals was curtailed, breakfast or dinner being reduced
from nearly an hour to five-and-twenty, or at the
utmost thirty-five minutes, which was the time
allowed on the Shrewsbury ‘ Wonder; while on the
Manchester ‘Telegraph’ twenty minutes only was
granted, which was the time they all used to allow
for breakfast.

To give even a short sketch of all the large
coach-proprietors who used to be engaged in carrying
on coaching business throughout the kingdom, would
fill several volumes, if any individual possessed the
requisite information, and was sufficiently well ac-
quainted with the coaches on every road in the
country. Few if any records are in existence as to
the most important circumstances and localities ; few
also are the persons who could relate them from
memory only, and their recollections would probably
apply to very limited localities.

I purpose giving, as far as I can, some account of
the large coach-proprietors of London, and of a few
country ones of whom I can speak personally.

I may venture to mention their names without
fear of causing them annoyance, or hurting their
COACH PROPRIETORS. 107

 

feelings, for of all those I shall mention not one is
now living. I shall, however, bear in mind the old
motto, ‘ De mortuis nil nisi bonum.’

At the head of the list I put the name of William
Chaplin, being the largest coach and mail proprietor
in London, which of course means in the world,
as he had three. separate coach offices in the City,
and, as usual with the City proprietors, an office
at the West End for the convenience of passengers
proceeding thence and wishing to book their places
beforehand.

Originally a coachman, he eventually raised himself
to the position of proprietor of a great number of
mails and coaches, was elected a member of Parlia-
ment for Salisbury, and after the coaches were
knocked off the road, became deputy-chairman of the
London and Southampton Railway, partner of Mr.
Benjamin Worthy Horne, with whom he carried on
an extensive and well-known business as railway
agents and carriers to the London and Birmingham
Railway, under the style of Chaplin and Horne.

In alluding, however, to Mr. Chaplin’s connection
with railways, I am getting on rather too much
ahead, as that did not take place until after his
coaching business had ceased. At the Swan with
Two Necks, in Lad Lane, he succeeded William
Waterhouse, who had carried on the business there
108 THE COACHING AGE,

 

ever since the year 1792. The Swan with Two
Necks, though, is of much older date, as in an
interesting book on sign-boards it is said, ‘The
Swan with Two Necks is a corruption from
Nicks. In 1556 the Swane with ij Nekes at Mylke
Street End.’ In imitation, I suppose, of the mail-
coach halfpenny, Waterhouse had a medal struck
of about the size of a halfpenny with a swan with
two necks stamped on it, and this inscription, ‘ Pay-
able. at the mail-coach office, Lad Lane, London.
W. W.’ I have at various times travelled and
conversed with many of Mr. Chaplin’s coachmen and
guards, but have not heard any one of them speak
unfavourably of him, and as a proof of his not for-
getting those who had been in his service, he sub-
sequently availed himself of the opportunities he had
of putting them into situations as guards or station-
masters on the railway. His countenance certainly
was expressive of kindness, but he had, I have under-
stood, although I never heard him exercise it, the
power of giving utterance to language more forcible
than eloquent when he considered it necessary. His
character is thus sketched by a man who was once
in his employment as a coachman :

‘Downright industry and a systematic application
to business, in which the female members of the
family were called to assist, formed the foundation of
COACH PROPRIETORS. 10g

 

his elevation. Well up in the practical part of his
vocation, which he followed professionally for years,
he had a-very good knowledge of the animals he
governed as well as the bipeds with whom he was
associated, and made them both subservient to his
designs. To the employment of an oratory he
could at all times most powerfully use, though it was
not adapted to the atmosphere of St. Stephen’s, he
added an intellect superior to most of his class in
shrewdness and tact, and this with a soft, oily
expression that procured for him the sobriquet of
“« Bite ’em sly.”

‘It is but due to his memory to state that to his
indefatigable perseverance, his application to business,
his forethought and general capacity, is to be attri-
buted the success of that Company, of which he was
so long and deservedly the head, which for its
efficiency, and its remuneration to the shareholders,
ranks among the first railroad Companies in the
kingdom.. At his death he had accumulated nearly
half a million of money, it is said—an immense sum
for a coachman to realize—more, perhaps, than the
industry and talents of any one man ought to realize ;
and to his lasting praise it must be recorded that he did
not forget, but took pains to provide for many of his
dependents, whose means of subsistence were destroyed
by the introduction of the new method of travelling.’
110 THE COACHING AGE.

 

He was deputy-chairman of the South-Western
Railway, and in the absence of Mr. Garnett, the
chairman, from the half-yearly meeting of the Com-
pany, in August, 1841, held at the then terminal
station at Vauxhall, it devolved upon him to take
the chair, when he ‘craved the indulgence of the
meeting for himself in his first essay at chairmanship,’
and in the course of his speech with reference to the
mail-packets from Southampton, said he had had
experience in the transmission of her Majesty’s mails,
and could assure the meeting that had it not been
that the conveyances were popular, very little beyond
empty honour would have been the result; and
further, in the course of his speech touching on the
punctuality of the trains, he said: ‘If they looked
at the pressure on particular trains, they would
not feel surprised that a good deal of time was
occasionally consumed on the road. The parties
who frequented the South-Western Railway were not
principally commercial men, with their watches in
their hand, and punctual to a minute, but ladies with
children and bonnet-boxes, who required and, he
hoped, received every attention (a laugh), so that it
was really under such circumstances wonderful that
so little delay occurred,’ which produced from the
meeting cries of ‘ Hear, hear.’

A gentleman was staying with him at his seat,
COACH PROPRIETORS. TIT

 

near Basingstoke, one Sunday, when the clergyman
took his text from the Proverbs of Solomon, and
Mr. Chaplin afterwards remarked to him: ‘That
Solomon was a clever fellow. I should not like
to have bought a horse from him without a written
warrant.’

In 1835 his principal establishment was at the
Swan with Two Necks, and he had about twelve
hundred horses at work. Out of the twenty-seven
mail-coaches leaving London nightly, he horsed no
less than fourteen. They were:

Holyhead. Norwich.

Devonport. Hull.

Liverpool. Bath.

Manchester. Dover.

Bristol. Poole and Southampton.
Halifax. Stroud.

Portsmouth. Lynn and Wells.

Some of these he horsed jointly with other pro-
prietors. Altogether he horsed those mails for a
distance of nearly 350 miles, which fully entitled
him to say in his address to the shareholders of the
South-Western Railway Company that he had had
experience in the transmission of her Majesty’s
mails.

In those instances where he did not actually pro-
vide the horses, although he had signed the contract
112 THE COACHING AGE.

 

with the Postmaster-General to cover the ground, he
was obliged to find a sub-contractor to do it at a
rate varying from twopence farthing to threepence
a mile. After the first eighty miles he found no
difficulty in getting. persons to join in working
them, things being so much cheaper; the principal
pressure upon him was in finding partners to keep
the mails moving with credit to himself and the.
office, at a distance from twenty to sixty miles from
London.

The small parcel trade was one inducement to
labour with the mails. There being no time allowed
for refreshments within a short distance from town,
there was not the breakfast or supper to be provided ;
and then coming at one or two in the morning, the
innkeeper would not care to horse the mail. It being
night-work both up and down, there was nothing besides
the bare earnings to offer him as an encouragement,
and private individuals did not much care to have
their establishments disturbed in the night, although
they probably would not object to horsing day
coaches. Many persons besides innkeepers used to
horse both mails and coaches.

Chaplin had about sixty-eight different concerns or
coaching-lines, requiring for their service about two
hundred coaches.

The opinion of a man so extensively engaged in
COACH PROPRIETORS. 113

 

coaching is of some weight on the important subject,
which was often discussed, of the desirability of
the mail-guards being entirely paid by Government,
whose servants they were; being of no service to the
passengers except in so far as they expedited the
mail on its journey by assisting to change horses at
places where they were not occupied in the discharge
of their official duties. That the passengers did not
appreciate this trifling assistance sufficiently to induce
them to fee the guards liberally may be gathered
from Chaplin’s remarks on the subject.

He said: ‘I would suggest the propriety of letting
the guards of the mails be entirely dependent on the
Government for their support, because there is rather
a dearth of that spirited kind of passenger to support
the mails, except to such great places as Liverpool
and Manchester; and I fancy it is chiefly because of
the expense that the guards do not go such long
distances with the mails as they do with the post-
coaches, the guards of which generally go to Manchester
or Liverpool, a distance of two hundred miles, while
the mail guards seldom exceed a distance of a hundred
miles ; then it becomes a heavy tax upon the
passenger to have two of these men to pay, and
if it could be borne by the Post Office it would be a
great inducement to many people to come by the
mail, who do not do so now.’

8
114 THE COACHING AGE.

 

When the conveyance of the mail-bags was trans-
ferred to the railways, the guards accompanying
them were paid entirely by the Post Office; they
had not the means of collecting fees from the
passengers. But in other cases, where the mails
were on the road, some of the guards were partly
paid by the Post Office, and others wholly; so
then they were prohibited from taking fees of the
passengers.

The guards who were in the latter position received
various sums as wages weekly, not exceeding in any
instance one pound nine shillings and tenpence ; and
the total amount paid to them annually in this way
was ten thousand eight hundred pounds.

They were appointed by the Postmaster-General.

As to the fees usually paid to the mail-guards
between London and Manchester, Chaplin said:
‘Some give perhaps half-a-crown ; they cannot give
less, or if they do the guard looks at them very
hard. The guard expects half-a-crown when he gets
to Leicester, and the same sum at Manchester. This
very much increases the expense, and we have not
the same sort of gentlemen to go with us who
used to go before the accommodation of the day-
coaches. The mails are very slackly supported, ex-
cepting in these populous districts; and if, therefore,
we could render them more popular, we could work
COACH PROPRIETORS. TIS

 

them at a less expense. The first thing is to
make them popular. We pay the guards from half-
a-guinea to fifteen shillings a week; but we do that
to make them our servants, and have a check upon
their conduct.’

He further observed, with reference to the question
whether passengers had a preference for the mail or
stage coach, ‘There is a great deal to be said on
that. The mails unfortunately do not flourish, except
in connection with very populous towns. Now, in
Manchester and Liverpool, where there is a vast
spirit of enterprise, they esteem the style of travel-
ling by the mail, and we get a very good living ;
but with respect to places of minor importance, we
cannot get a sufficient number of gentlemen or active
merchants into the mail, and we are suffering very
severely for want of inducements to the passengers
to travel by it. It has occurred to me that
some twenty years ago (1815), when the mails
were established, and there were no day-coaches for
distances of about one hundred miles, gentlemen
invariably came from Bath and other such places
by the mails, and then the passengers consisted of
officers in the army, merchants and gentlemen ; but
now that day-coaches are established everywhere
within a hundred and forty miles from London, all
those passengers go by the day-coaches, and we

8—2
116 THE COACHING AGE,

 

cannot find a sufficient number of mercantile men
of spirit, who value their time, to give us increased
fares to meet the limited number of passengers ;
and therefore the mails are very materially suffer-
ing, and also we are suffering a good deal of
injury from the early hour at which the mails
are required to be in London. That is very much
against us.’

‘The post-coaches from Bristol and Norwich, and
other places, that can stop an hour and a half longer
in the provinces, and are not obliged to arrive in
London till nine o’clock in the morning, offer a very
great accommodation ; whereas people do not like
the mail-coaches leaving earlier, and arriving before
the hotels and private houses are open to receive
them, and therefore I presume that to be one of
the leading objections. Leaving London at eight.
at night operates excellently. The mails have all
the preference. Most persons have brought their
business to a close by eight o’clock; the dinner-
hour is over, and a man, if he means to go, is ready
at eight.

‘The “Bath,” which used to be the best mail in
England, and supported by the best sort of persons,
has become a very impoverished concern.’

This Chaplin said in 1835, about twenty years
after the ‘York House’ coach had been started, and
COACH PROPRIETORS. 117

 

at a time when there were about fifteen or sixteen
day and night coaches, with two mails, running
between London and Bath.

Referring to the terms ‘large coach-proprietors,’
sometimes made when applications were received by
them from persons in a smaller way of business
to join them in putting a coach on the road, he
observed : ‘There are circumstances in which a man
would have sufficient influence to command a high
price for anything that he chose to offer to people to
join him in.’

‘Mr. Brotherton, of Liverpool, for instance,’ he said,
‘is an exceedingly opulent man. He may have most
of the large inns under his control, and he would lay
down his own practice and say, “I will build my own
coaches, and have such a price for them. If you
want to work a coach from London to Liverpool
with me, I have no objection, but I shall ‘find the
coach,” It will,’ said Chaplin, ‘then be for us to
consider whether his interest in the town to fill
the coach is worth a sacrifice of so much a mile
for his machinery.’

The stories of the road connected with Chaplin
must have been numerous, and some of them no
doubt very amusing ; but I regret that I am unable
to furnish many.

A man having separate concerns on every road
118 THE COACHING AGE.

 

out of London, must doubtless have been subject
to a good deal of the ‘ shouldering’ process, or, as he
mildly expressed it, the ‘ peculations’ of his servants.

On the subject of the duties being so assessed
that proprietors paid on a smaller number of pas-
sengers than the mail was capable of carrying, and
thus had fa vacant seat; but if they paid duty
on the next rate in the scale, they would pay
for more than they could carry, he expressed his
opinion that the new mails were generally popular
with and approved by the public, were more com-
modious and travelled well, but said: ‘It would be
better for the contractors if the mails were allowed
to carry another outside passenger. By the last
regulation of the Stamp Office the licenses run
very unfortunately for the mails, because they are
in gradations. We go from four to six, and six
to nine. Now the mail carrying but seven pas-
sengers has to pay a penny a mile for the duty,
although it can only take the one passenger over
the six. We pay as much as if we took nine, and
that compels us to have an idle capital. We are
running along the country with four inside and two
out; there is a vacant seat. We cannot reduce the
number of horses, nor the wages of the servants,
nor any one item in the expense, in proportion to
the reduced receipts from that one passenger.’
COACH PROPRIETORS. 119

 

‘It would be a great convenience to us if we were
allowed to take an additional passenger. In travel-
ling through the country we require the benefit
of the road trade. When we license upon the short
number of four and two, if a person is going from one
provincial town to another we cannot take him up ;
or if we do, it is encouraging our servants to peculate
with our earnings: but we do not desire to take him,
because of infringing the laws.’

‘Having licenses for four and two, the servant
is tempted to take a passenger up in the night
journey, and sometimes in the day, having a
vacant place; and if it be for a short distance, too
frequently he keeps the money in his own pocket,
or, in the phraseology of the road, “shoulders the
passenger.” ’

‘We frequently,’ Chaplin said, ‘particularly in
winter, license only for six. At the commencement
of winter the night-travelling is not so popular,
therefore the outsides decrease, and we go away
with a vacant seat every night. At Piccadilly, in
going into the west of England, if a person wants
to go as far as Windsor, or Salt Hill, if we do
perchance take him up, there is a long passenger to
Exeter lost; and if we have four and two, we are
debarred from getting the accommodation necessary
for our own welfare, or the public convenience. But
120 THE COACHING AGE.

 

there are no coaches equal to many of the mails;
even those coaches that run in the day cannot match
them: but it is as much as the mail-contractors
can do to keep up to the speed, and they will be
obliged to make every exertion in their power to
do go.’

By-the-bye, in reference to the accomplishment, or
whatever it may be called, of ‘ shouldering,’ there is
a curious story told of a toast given by Chaplin at a
dinner at which some guards and coachmen of his
own were present. Coming from a large coach-pro-
prietor, and in such company, the toast seems rather
singular ; but I have no doubt of the authenticity
of the story, as I have heard it from more than two
persons. It was: ‘ Here’s success to shouldering, but
do it well! which I conclude meant, ‘Don’t let me
find you out.’

In the following instance, however, the man was
found out. It happened that a guard of the name of
Jenks contrived to shoulder a passenger nearly all
the way from Manchester ; in other words, to convey
the passenger up by the coach without his name
being put on the way-bill, but receiving his fare, the
whole of which he pocketed.

The rule used to be that the coachman and guard
always shared short fares; but in Jenks’s case there
were changes of coachmen during the passenger’s
COACH PROPRIETORS. 125

 

journey, and they would not be aware that his name
was not on the bill, hence the possibility of the
guard’s pocketing the entire sum.

Somehow or other the circumstance became known
to the last coachman, to whom Jenks declined to
hand over any portion of the plunder ; and eventually
an account of the whole proceeding reached Chaplin’s
ears. Jenks was sent for, and the case being fully
proved against him—or it would perhaps be more
correct to say, he having no means of controverting
the charge, as Chaplin said to him: ‘ You have not
only robbed your masters, but you have robbed your
fellow-servant as well’ —he was, of course, dis-
missed.

The occasional receipt of small sums from passengers
for short distances, and not putting them on the bill,
might be considered a custom tacitly assented to by
the proprietors ; as on a coach running a hundred
miles or more, where there was plenty of room, no
notice would be taken of a passenger béing occa-
sionally carried a few miles and putting two shillings
or half-a-crown into the pocket of the coachman
and guard, if there was one. Such a course rendered
their situations worth more pecuniarily, and induced
them to discharge their duties in a satisfactory
manner.

At coaching dinners, when the proprietors used to
122 THE COACHING AGE.

 

meet either on a sharing account, or to make ar-
rangements for putting on a new coach, or altering
any of the regulations relating to one on the road,
there used to be a toast given by one of the endmen ;
and in that capacity I have no doubt Chaplin often
gave it, though I do not suppose it originated with
him.

There was sometimes a difficulty in getting men to
horse a coach over the middle ground, where there
was nothing to be got but a bare share of the
earnings; and therefore it was often requisite to deal
gently with these men and avoid giving them any
cause of complaint which might terminate in their
taking their horses off, when some one else had to
be found to cover the ground, perhaps at a fixed rate
higher than the other proprietors were receiving from
the sharing. By way, therefore, of paying men in
this position a small compliment, and making them
feel satisfied with it, their health was proposed in
the toast to ‘ The Middle Ground Men.’

Stoppages were often made by coachmen, especially
those that had belonged to the old school, at places,
not appointed for refreshment or meals; and accord-
ingly it was by no means unusual to find on a day-
coach not worked very punctually as to time, that
where a change of horses took place, or even in some
cases where there was no reason or necessity for stop-
COACH PROPRIETORS. 123

 

ping, the coachman would pull up at a small roadside
inn for some five or ten minutes; and on going indoors
you would find a cold joint and a loaf of bread, which
the coachman would at once inform you there was time
to have a cut at, and at the same time benefit his friend
the landlord. According to this mode of proceeding
it was the daily practice of one of Chaplin’s coachmen
to stop at the Magpies, at Harlington corner on the
Bath Road, on his down journey, at about eleven
o'clock, and occupy some ten minutes in getting
luncheon, which he always found ready. It so hap-
pened that Chaplin rode down on the coach one day,
when the usual routine was gone through, the coach-
man asking him if he would not take something.
Chaplin observed that there was not any knife and
fork on the table, when the coachman produced those
articles, which he always carried with him, and offered
them to him. As the coach was about starting again
after some ten or fifteen minutes, Chaplin, knowing
that such a time ought not to have been lost, there
being properly no stoppage at all at the Magpies,
quietly observed to the coachman that he supposed
the time would be made up out of his horses, as it
was clear from his being provided with his knife and
fork that the delay was a daily occurrence. The
coachman, named Trigg, did not continue in Chaplin’s
employment.
124 THE COACHING AGE.

 

I don’t think it often happened that there was a
strange coachman and a strange guard on one of the
mails out of London, neither of whom knew the
road; but this once occurred with Chaplin, as from
some cause with which I am unacquainted the regular
coachman of the Halifax mail, which Chaplin horsed,
was not on the coach, and it devolved upon Chaplin
to take the reins. When he came near the place
where he supposed there was a change, he asked the
guard, who had only just, been put on this mail, where
the change was, but that functionary possessed no
more knowledge on the subject than Chaplin him-
self; however, they managed, I believe, to get the
mail through the country without any mishap or
great loss of time. They would probably ask the
horse-keeper at one stage where the next changing-
place was; in addition to which the horses them-
selves would very likely pull up at the right spot,
and by the instrumentality of the guard’s horn the
fresh horses would be found standing out in the
road.

Of the eight mails that went out of Piccadilly
nightly Chaplin horsed all but two, the Gloucester
and Exeter ; so that he had to send six mail-carts up
there, each carrying a guard, with his letter-bags and
post-office equipments, and for the performance of
this service he charged in the accounts with his
‘LOPLSOd ATTOP V SV CAZIMOMWALXE GHYVNSD'SSANUVH ASHOH ANnod ON

‘dui qaeyuey “ua? PP’ ssefunnge

sf WU

 
COACH PROPRIETORS. 125

 

partners in each mail an annual sum of thirteen
pounds.

Chaplin’s establishment at the Spread Eagle, in
Gracechurch Street, was not so extensive, nor did so
many of his best coaches start from there as from the
Swan with two Necks. Most of his fast coaches into
Kent and Surrey started from Gracechurch Street,
whence they had greater facilities for getting out
of London than at Lad Lane. Though Chaplin had
not any of the coaches running the extreme distances
in a day, such as to Shrewsbury and Manchester, or
the two longest mails, such as the Edinburgh and
Glasgow, yet he had the three fastest mails, the
Bristol, Devonport, and Holyhead.

With regard to the pace of coaches generally, he
said that many professed to perform ten miles an
hour by day, nine miles an hour by night ; but they
were variable, and very rarely performed on an average
more than nine miles and a half an hour by day, and
eight and a half by night.

‘There are a few, however,’ he eoudinned, ‘which
fully maintain ten miles an hour—the Brighton, the
Exeter day-coach, and the Shrewsbury day-coach.
Among the best I have are the Estafette to Man-
chester, leaving London at ten in the morning, nine
miles and a half an hour; the Birmingham “ Tantivy,”
by Oxford; the Bristol day-coach, etc.
126 THE COACHING AGE.

 

‘Tn fine weather they travel well, but with full loads
and heavy roads they decrease in speed, and are not
punctual like the mails.’

Both mails and coaches were accelerated in subse-
quent years.

To sum up, it may be said that Chaplin’s business
was conducted admirably, and he was sufficiently
long-sighted to retire from it without losing so much
money aS many men in the same way of business
did; for when it became clear that coaches must
inevitably be superseded by railways, he sold his
horses and threw his influence and connection into
the railway companies.

I think I may venture to say that, so far from losing.
much money, he died a much richer man than he
would have done had he continued in the coaching
business.

Having given some account of the largest coach-
proprietor, I will now proceed to give one of the
man who, I believe, was unquestionably the second.

Edward Sherman succeeded Willans at the Bull and
Mouth in the year 1823. He was said to have been
a stockbroker, and how he came to embark in such
a totally different occupation as coaching I cannot
explain, but have no doubt the story was correct, as
he was frequently to be seen in a tavern adjoining
the Stock Exchange, in company with Lewis Levy, the
COACH PROPRIETORS. 127

 

extensive farmer of turnpike tolls and post-horse
duties, and several stockbrokers and other men con-
nected with the Stock Exchange. He married three
old ladies in succession. He rebuilt the Bull and
Mouth, considerably enlarging it, and making stabling
underground for a large number of horses, indispens-
able for the numerous coaches starting from his inn.
These stables were kept nearly always full, day and
night ; for as the horses left them early in the morning
to go out of London with the day-coaches, those
bringing the mails and night-coaches into London in
the morning soon filled them up again, until their
departure with the night-coaches and mails left them
vacant for the day-coach horses, who occupied them
during the night.

Unlike Chaplin, Sherman had only one coaching
establishment in the City; but he had the Oxford
Arms Inn, in Newgate Market, whence his vans and
waggons started,as he was engaged in this branch of
road business as well, but kept it quite distinct from
his coaching.

The sign of his coaching-house was originally
Boulogne Mouth, signifying the harbour there, and it
was a sign very frequently used after the capture of
that place by Henry VIII. Gradually, however, it
became Anglicised into the Bull and Mouth, a sign
so completely adopted that when Sherman rebuilt the
128 THE COACHING AGE.

 

house he put up outside it a stone head of a man,
with a bull in his expanded mouth, which may be
seen to this day. A painting of it was on the panels
of the doors of his coaches, and sometimes on the
door of the hind boot as well.

Being immediately opposite the entrance to the
General Post Office yard, and at the end of Aldersgate
Street, the situation of the Bull and Mouth was most
favourable for traffic on the northern roads, to which
Sherman principally directed his attention, increasing
the number of his coaches to Birmingham from five,
which he found running when he took the Bull and
Mouth, to nine, the number he had on when the
Birmingham Railway opened to Denbigh Hall; two
or three were then immediately taken off, but he and
his partners endeavoured to keep the others going
till their profits were so diminished that the pro-
prietors could not continue.

Sherman was the originator of the long-distance day-
coaches, having begun with the ‘ Wonder’ to Shrews-
bury, 158 miles; the longest distances performed by
day-coaches having previously been between 100 and
125 miles, from London to Bristol. This was subse-
quently followed by the Exeter ‘Telegraph’ day-coach,
in which he had a share, the distance of this coach’s
running being 165 miles. In order, however, to eclipse
anything that had ever been done before in the coaching
COACH PROPRIETORS. 129

 

world, Sherman started the Manchester ‘ Telegraph’
day-coach, doing 186 miles, or twenty-eight miles
farther than the ‘ Wonder.’

Other proprietors followed in his wake, after this
coach had suggested the idea of trying what was the
greatest distance a coach could travel in a day, as an
opposition was started to the ‘ Wonder; and the
Exeter coach was not put on by Sherman, though
probably he was allowed to have a share in the
concern in order to prevent his putting on an oppo-
sition.

In another respect Sherman was unlike Chaplin :
I never heard of his driving a coach, and I rather
think he could not do it; but his yellow four-wheeled
headed chaise, with a small cob, and a double pair
of reins, driven by himself, a boy or man generally
accompanying him, was a familiar sight in the city.
Why he had the double pair of reins I don’t know,
as the animal always seemed to be the most steady,
quiet-going one possible, never evincing the slightest
propensity to bolt. The turn-out altogether was
unique, and one sure to attract attention, principally
from the unusual colour of the carriage, the body
and wheels, like those of nearly all his coaches, being
yellow. There was nothing whatever ‘down the
road’ or horsey in Sherman’s appearance, but there
was one thing about it then most unusual, although

7
130 THE COACHING AGE.

 

very common at the present time—he wore a mous-
tache, but not a beard.

If you saw a yellow coach in London, you might
venture (although not sufficiently near to see the
lettering on it) to predict that it was one of
Sherman’s; but if you could only get a glimpse
of its shape there could no longer be the slightest
doubt, as his coaches, some of which belonged to him,
were built on a model totally different from any
other coaches running out of London, being quite of
the old-fashioned shape, such as you might see among
the cross-country coaches on some roads a long way
from town.

Sherman was the next largest mail-coach proprietor
to Chaplin, and although covering only half the ground
he did, had the very important mails carrying all the
Scotch correspondence, as he horsed the Edinburgh
and the Glasgow, also the Leeds, the Halifax con-
jointly with Chaplin, and the Worcester and Exeter,
making six altogether, and the total number of miles
172. He had also the ‘ Wellington,’ a coach running
direct from London to Newcastle, and therefore taking
a good deal of Scotch traffic, being the only road-
coach that ran through for so long a distance. Other
coaches there were on the same road, but running as
far as York only, where a change of coaches took place,
and perhaps of inns, too, if it happened that you
COACH PROPRIETORS. 131

 

travelled from London to York by a coach terminating
its journey there at an inn from which no coach went
farther northward, in which case you would have to
go to some other coach-ofiice.

Among the coaches Sherman found running from the
Bull and Mouth when he took to it was one which
had been running for some years previously, but when
it was originally started I cannot say. It was called
the ‘Subscription, from London to Exeter, and was
on the road in 1819, at which time it used to take
twenty-five hours in performing the journey. Per-
haps it is scarcely necessary to add that the coach
was of a yellow colour. It was originally started by
some sort of subscription, and hence the name.

I do not fancy that Sherman was a very great
favourite with his country partners, as a large coach-
proprietor and innkeeper down the North road, who
horsed some mails with him, told me they had a
difficulty in getting their shares of the earnings,
the whole of the mileage for horsing the mails
out of London being always paid to the London
proprietor, to whom all his partners, including the
man at the other end, had to look for payment
of their several shares according to the length
of ground they covered. He also used to. charge
his partners in the coaches for straw supplied, I
suppose in the winter-time, to assist in keeping the

g—2
132 ‘THE COACHING AGE.

 

passengers’ feet warm. He certainly had not any
foot-warmers such as they have in railway-carriages
either for the outside or inside passengers. He had
also generally some other charges to make for sup-
posed disbursements which tended to diminish the
shares of his partners; added to which, I think in
all those instances where his own peculiar build of
coach was in use the vehicles belonged to him, and
he received a mileage for their use of a farthing or
halfpenny a mile more than a coachbuilder would
have charged: but to this the country proprietors
were obliged to submit, in order to secure his interest
and connection, and the benefit arising from running
to the Bull and Mouth in London.

The farthing or halfpenny a mile seems a very in-
significant sum to mention, but when calculated upon
each mile throughout the journey of a long coach, and
daily throughout the year, it would amount to some-
thing considerable; and further, if charged upon a
number of coaches running from the same establish-
ment, would constitute an appreciable item in the
gross receipts of the business.

With respect to time-keeping, even of very fast
coaches, Sherman concurred with Chaplin as to their
being necessarily influenced much by the state of
the roads, as he said the keeping their time greatly
depended upon that and the season ; accordingly the
COACH PROPRIETORS. 133

 

pace was moderated as occasion might require. This
observation only applied to the coaches. For the
mails there was no moderation of pace; they were
obliged to keep the same time whatever the season,
and notwithstanding that the greater part of their
journeys was performed in the dark. The only
obstacles which they were unable to overcome were
fogs, floods, and snow ; ordinary badness or heaviness
of roads in winter they did by some means or other
successfully contend against.

There were many acts by which proprietors of
stage-coaches or their coachmen and guards might
incur penalties in consequence of violating some Act
of Parliament which they had either never seen or
wholly disregarded, running the risk of penalties
being inflicted upon themselves, and totally indif-
ferent whether they were laying their masters open to
penalties being inflicted upon them. So, in order to
keep clear of the professional informer’s net, Sherman
had this notice printed and circulated among his
coachmen and guards connected with the Estafette
coach, and also in his establishment as a caution to
the other men in his service in their departments :

2ND AND 3RD WixitaM IV., Cap. 120.
Estafette, 2964.
TAKE NOTICE.

This coach, on and after 5th instant, is licensed to carry four
inside, and nine outside; and if more be carried either inside or
134 THE COACHING AGE,

 

outside, the proprietors forfeit five pounds, and the driver also
five pounds, for each passenger more than the number. A child
or children in the lap (that is at the breast) not counted; and
two children not in the lap, but under seven years of age, are
reckoned as one passenger. Neither the guard (if any), nor the
driver, is reckoned a passenger.

If a child be booked as a half, the age should always be asked,
and the answer stated on the way-bill.

EDWARD SHERMAN.

N.B.—There are many other regulations, for the neglect of
which penalties are imposed, and as to which it is necessary that
all parties concerned should consult the Act of Parliament.

" Bull and Mouth, London,
October 14th, 1840. 200—23 April, 1836.

Besides the fast day-coaches I have mentioned as
having been started by Sherman, there were others,
for instance the ‘ Beaufort Hunt,’ from London to
Bath ; if not exactly in opposition to the ‘ York House,’
as not starting just at the same time, it was a rival,
having Sherman as the London proprietor at one end,
and William Lane, jun., Bath, at the other. ;

Some differences having arisen at Bath in the
coaching business, young Lane got Sherman to join
him, he being an enterprising man, and, as he said
himself when once asked to put a day-coach on a
road under not the most rosy prospects, ‘ always
ready to try.’ The London man, being usually con-
sidered the boss among his country partners in a:
coaching concern, had the general management and
arrangement in starting a new undertaking.
COACH PROPRIETORS. 135

 

That Sherman occupied this position in the ‘ Beau-
fort Hunt’ case may be assumed from the circumstance
that the coaches were all yellow, and one of them of
his own peculiar build, somewhat heavy, and not well
adapted to such fast work as the ‘ Beaufort Hunt.’

It happened that in its earlier days this coach was
not particularly prosperous, as with the heavy loads
carried, the pace adopted, and the hilly ground below
Newbury, the stock got knocked to pieces; and
worse than all, accidents occurred, the coach being
upset twice in little more than a fortnight. The
consequence was people were afraid to ride in it,
and it was doing very badly; so much so, that the
proprietors found it necessary to make some sweeping
alterations in order to gain a position for it, restore
the confidence of the public, and make it a paying
concern.

As the difficulties and mishaps had occurred on the
lower ground, it devolved on the lower-ground man
(Lane, at Bath) to remedy them.

The first step he took was to dispense with the
services of a so-called Captain Jones, who was one of
the coachmen who had had an upset, and the other
man who worked with him between Bath and New-
bury. In their places he put on a young man who
was a very good coachman, well known on the road,
and who had to drive up from Bath till he met the
136 THE COACHING AGE.

 

down-coach at the ‘ Halfway House,’ or Newbury, and
sometimes on Sunday as far as Thatcham, when he
changed on to the down-coach, and drove back to
Bath, making about 105 miles a day, not excepting
Sundays.

By way of further expedition this coachman carried
a young fellow as guard up and down with him at his
own expense, and to do the skidding and unskidding
on the lower hilly ground.

The stages were short, necessarily, as the pace they
went was about eleven miles an hour, and they were :

From Bath to Box, 5 miles From Marlborough, 7 miles

» Chippenham 7 ,, » Foxfield T 4s
» Calne Bi sy » Halfway House, 7 ,,
» Beckhampton 6 ,, » Thatcham, € a

The new coachman found that by some curious
arrangement all the horses working in one of the
coaches which was considerably heavier than the
other (and must, I expect, have been one of Sher-
man’s own), were slighter than those in the lighter
coach, and generally that the stock was in very bad
condition ; he therefore got all the horses changed,
and by care and management got them into good
order.

The coach from the White Lion in the market-
place at Bath became quite an object of interest,
and a number of persons would stop to see it, as
COACH PROPRIETORS. 137

 

they do now when a coach is leaving the White
Horse Cellar. By civility and attention to his
passengers, and using his interest among his own
connection and friends, the coachman succeeded in
re-establishing the coach in public favour, places in
it being booked sometimes two or three weeks before-
hand, and being always full up and down.

As the coachman drove from Bath till he met the
down-coach, the only chance he had of getting
his dinner was while the passengers were getting
theirs at Marlborough, where the coach stopped
twenty-five minutes for that purpose.

During this short time, however, the way-bill
which he had received from the down-coachman was
to be looked through, so he generally got the
landlord to read it to him while he was eating his
dinner.

Eventually, and mainly through this coachman, the
coach got into a very prosperous condition, the
proprietors sharing about six guineas a mile, while his
own place, though rather a hard one, was lucrative,
as he had two sets of passengers a day (and every
day, for the coach ran on Sundays), and worth about
twenty pounds a week; but out of this he paid
something to his guard, whose weekly wages did
not amount to much, as he received a good deal
in the way of tips. The rail, which floored all the
138 THE COACHING AGE.

 

coaches eventually, got hold of the ‘ Beaufort Hunt,’
first of all taking it down on a truck by the Great
Western to Maidenhead, and then farther on as the
railway kept opening from place to place, and
ultimately banishing it from the road altogether.
CHAPTER VIII.
COACH PROPRIETORS (Continued).

Havine now shown something of Sherman’s business
and position in the coaching world before he was
in any way interfered with by railways, I propose
to show how they affected him; and in pointing
out what were the results to him, it may be
observed that they were only the same as were
experienced I might almost say by hundreds of
other men, as they had the same effect upon the
business of nearly all the coach-proprietors throughout
the kingdom. Some of them had laid by sufficient to
enable them to live very comfortably, and, if they
had an inn in a town which had been considerably
enlarged and its trade increased by the establish-
ment of a railway, may have done as well, or perhaps
better than they had with coaching, for although
coaches might load well, it was not all profit.
Expenses were heavy, and if there was great competi-
tion the wear and tear of stock working in fast
opposition coaches was very great, even granting
140 THE COACHING AGE.

 

that a man had good luck in his stables being free
from disease or death.

Considering the number of horses that were kept
in some of the underground stables of the London
coach-proprietors for want of better accommodation, I
should say they were singularly free from disease and
loss. There is this, though, to be borne in mind, that
even the horses which worked in the day-coaches,
and consequently on arriving in London had to
sleep underground, would go out the next morning,
so that they spent every other day and night in the
country, together with their rest-days; while the night-
coach horses were better off still, as coming into town
in the morning, they were out again in the afternoon,
never spending a night in town at all. Those
unfortunate horses arriving in town on Saturday
night, if the coach did not run on Sunday, would
have to remain there till Monday morning. Sunday
in London is not the most lively time under any
circumstances ; but I suppose if you were bound, like
the horses, to spend it underground, it would be
much the same as any other day in the week.

The London and Birmingham Railway was the first
long line to open out of London, and Sherman’s
business being principally on the North road, it was a
more important matter to him than to any of the
London proprietors. .
COACH PROPRIETORS. 141

 

‘T attribute,’ he said, ‘ my losses to railroads entirely.
Our business was in a very fair state till then.” In
the early part of the year 1839, he said, from the
opening of the railroad his business had been
gradually decreasing: from the time it opened to
Tring, and then to Denbigh Hall, fifteen coaches
running daily had been taken off. It also affected
coaches running on the Oxford road through Uxbridge
and Wycombe when opened to Tring: of these he
had about five or six, which were nearly all taken
off then.

Though all the celebrated ‘Tally Ho’ coaches, of
which there were three, together with the other Bir-
mingham day-coaches, had been taken off, Sherman still
stuck persistently to the road, and in conjunction with
Mrs. Mountain, of the Saracen’s Head, worked one
night-coach to Birmingham, and kept on the ‘ Grey-
hound.’ In fact, in 1839 all the coaches, day and
night, were off but two, which there was great difh-
culty in keeping on, the fare being reduced to one
pound inside, and only twelve shillings outside ; and
even with that reduction they got no inside pas-
sengers, as they could go by rail for a pound. The
number of passengers had, in fact, so dwindled down,
that they did not on an average book one inside
passenger per coach, but they could have booked
more than the number outside. People went away
142 THE COACHING AGE.

 

from the office saying they could go by the railroad
for a pound, so then he offered to book them as
outsides, and put them inside; but that made the
shares so small, that the proprietors were constantly
giving notice to take off their horses.

‘If some alteration does not take place,’ Sherman
said, referring to the heavy duties assessed on stage-
coaches, ‘this summer will close the whole of the
coaching. I do not expect there will be a coach
running at all in the winter.’

There was not a day-coach then running, but some
people had asked him to try one; his answer was
that there was no chance of doing any good unless
gome assistance was given in the reduction of duty,
tolls, ete. Nothing but great reductions would enable
them to compete with the railroad, and it was not
fair competition as they then were. He thought to
satisfy part of the public who were timid and not
disposed to go by the railroad. Some portion would
go by coach, but not many. The generality of coach
passengers he described as timid people, who did not
like to go by the railroad except at very low fares
indeed—that induced the lower orders to go; but
the people who travelled by coach were also so poor,
that the coachmen and guards said they got nothing,
and their places were not worth having.

Before all Sherman’s coaches were off the Bir-
COACH PROPRIETORS. 143

 

mingham road, or the line opened at all, overtures
seem to have been made to him on behalf of the
Railway Company, with a view of obtaining a
transfer of his interest and business from the road to
the railway ; but considering his position stronger
than it eventually turned out to be, he declined the
proposition, with what results will be seen in the
sequel in his negotiation with Mr. Glyn, the chair-
man of the London and Birmingham line at that
time.

His own version of the transaction was :

‘T gave Mr. Glyn an account of the number of my
coaches that would be affected by the railway, and
told him that when public convenience did not require
these coaches on the road, I would withdraw them,
and send the trade through the railway if he would
allow me to do so.’

Mr. Glyn perhaps thought this was ‘ Thank you for
nothing,’ according to an old phrase. It was virtually
saying, ‘When the public have ceased travelling by
my coaches, and my business is gone, I will pass it
over to your company.’

Under these circumstances it is not surprising to
find that the company made overtures to other coach-
proptietors, who between them had a considerable.
number of coaches and mails on the Birmingham,
Manchester and Liverpool roads. Sherman said that
144 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the company. shut him out and made an exclusive
arrangement with the other two houses; and this
he considered a monopoly, and the ruin of his trade,
as the company would not allow him to send his
coaches, or the coaches that came up from Leeds,
Scotland, and Carlisle, nearly the .whole of which
trade was in his hands, to their station at Euston.
The proprietors wished the coaches on coming up to
branch off at Northampton to the station at Denbigh
Hall, and the people Sherman was working with per-
suaded him to apply to the Railway Company for
permission to send the trade to the station at Euston
Square, to work it out at Denbigh Hall to North-
ampton ; but they would not allow him to do it, and
thus his trade passed into other hands. The pro-
prietors at Charing Cross and Lad Lane, Chaplin and
Horne, alone having the privilege of working to the
station and back, Sherman’s trade was forced into
their hands, the only reason given to him being that
he did not apply soon enough, or something to that
effect.

Mr. Glyn, Sherman’ said, asked him to make some
propositions, so he made several, and offered to
send certain coaches; but they made excuses for
not adopting his suggestions, and at last he found
they had made an exclusive arrangement with Messrs.
Horne and Chaplin. The company would not allow
COACH PROPRIETORS. 145

 

Sherman to go into their station with a conveyance
for those passengers who had come to Denbigh Hall
by the coaches.

On no other railway, he said, did such an arrange-
ment exist. The South Western and Great Western
stations were open to any person, and so he sent his
coaches to the Great Western as soon as it opened.

Sherman reckoned that his loss in endeavouring to
keep his coaches on had amounted to seven thousand
pounds in less than two years after the opening of
the railway.

Thus an extensive business which had been carried.
on prosperously for some twelve or fourteen years
was entirely destroyed, or at all events removed from
one channel to another, for people still continued to
travel. One cannot but see that the loss, so far
as Sherman was concerned, arose in a great measure
from his endeavouring to carry things with rather a
high hand, and defy the Railway Company. He
seems to have discovered his mistake, as he after-
wards adopted a directly opposite course with the
Great Western, which resulted in his getting the
working of the omnibuses from that station to the
bank.

The palmy days of the old Bull and Mouth may
be said to have then terminated.

I will now take the next person of importance

10
146 THE COACHING AGE.

 

among the London coach and mail proprietors,
Benjamin Worthy Horne. He did a considerable
business at his three coaching inns, having coaches on
nearly all the roads, travelling, as he said, all distances
from twenty-five to more than two hundred miles;-
the twenty-five miles being the Dorking coach, the
only one he had that carried six inside, and the two.
hundred miles would be the Liverpool ‘ Umpire.’ ‘He
horsed five mails—the Gloucester, Chester, Dover,
Stroud, and Hastings—some of them wholly out of
London, and some in conjunction with other London
men.

He had also the foreign mail, known as the ‘ Dover
Auxiliary Mail,’ leaving London on Tuesday and
Friday nights only, and carrying the foreign mails.
It was an ordinary stage-coach, unlike. the regular
mails, and was provided by Horne himself. If it
happened to be in Dover when the foreign mail
packet arrived, it brought up the bags; but if not,
they were forwarded by mail-cart.

Horne said he believed his father, William Horne,
had the credit of setting the first example of speed in
the mails and coaches with a coach up and down from
Brighton, and he was the man who said that in his
opinion the mails went too fast. They travelled
so fast that they continually met with accidents on
dark nights, his coach having unfortunately killed a
 

Hanhart imp

turgess del.et hth

JS

OUT OF LONDON BY TORCHES

UIDED

7

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COACH PROPRIETORS. 147

 

gentleman one night not long before; and the Man-
chester mail, some time previously, having almost
destroyed three or four people. He was a large pro-
prietor ; his coaches went almost everywhere, and he
had 200 horses standing at Barnet in the year 1827.
He had the Chester mail, and went to Charing Cross
in 1812; but in 1835 B. W. Horne succeeded him.

Horne had some fast coaches engaged in his trade,
as the Bedford ‘Times,’ a noted coach ; the ‘ Inde-
pendent Tally-Ho,’ one of the three running in that
name from London to Birmingham ; and the ‘ Nimrod,’
in opposition to the Shrewsbury ‘ Wonder,’ which
must necessarily have been fast to keep either in
front of, or anywhere near its rival.

Horne had the foresight, like Chaplin, to realize
at an early period the fact that railways would
entirely supersede coach travelling ; and accordingly,
with Chaplin, he threw his connection and interest
into the London and Birmingham Railway, and hence
arose the firm of Chaplin and Horne.

It was alleged that the coaches between London
and Birmingham were bought off by the Railway
Company ; but this Mr. Glyn most distinctly denied,
and said that he wondered how such a report could
have originated.

In all probability, joining the London and Bir-
mingham line at once secured for Chaplin and Horne

10—2
148 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the carrying agency to it, or that agency formed
part of the inducement held out to them to with-
draw their coaches from the road, and not, as was
- said, £10,000 for throwing their interest into the
railway.

The next person in my list may, I think, be Robert
Gray. He went to the Bolt-in-Tun Coach Office, in
Fleet Street, in the year 1807, having previously
carried on the business of a coach-proprietor at the
Belle Sauvage, on Ludgate Hill. He‘said he was
extensively engaged in business.as a stage-coach pro-
prietor, chiefly on the western and southern roads,
having nothing at all upon the northern.

He was concerned in two mails, the Portsmouth,
and the Hastings, a pair-horse coach which he worked
in conjunction with Horne, whose business was about.
four times as large as his own, as he knew from the
respective sums they paid annually for duties.

That the Bolt-in-Tun is a very old coaching-inn, or
rather an inn from which conveyances of some de-
scription started upwards of a hundred years since, is
clear from an account given of it in the book on
‘ Signboards’ before referred to, which runs thus:

Hereford Machine,
Tn a day and a half twice, continues flying from the Swan and
Falcon, Hereford, Monday and Thursday mornings, and from the
Bolt-in-Tun, Fleet Street, London, Monday and Thursday evenings.
Fare, 19s.; outside, one half.— Hereford Journal, January 12, 1775.
COACH PROPRIETORS. 149

 

The announcement alluding to the machine flying
from the Swan and Falcon, appears to have been com-
posed by some facetious individual ; so far as can be
ascertained from contemporary records of the pace of
the machines at that period, and the state of the roads,
there could have been but little flying about their
progress—one would be rather inclined to designate
it crawling; three miles an hour, or somethin g more,
I fancy, was about the rate of travelling. But by
this time the roads were, perhaps, beginning to im-
prove, as in 1784, only nine years later, the first
mail-coach was put upon the road.

Some persons who probably were well acquainted
with Mr. Gray, and wished to have a joke with him,
sent him the following letter, evidently a hoax ; but
there was a Hereford night-coach called the ‘Cham-
pion,’ which ran from London to Hereford from the
Bolt-in-Tun. There was no date to the letter, but the
post-mark was Long Lane, Smithfield, 23rd December,
1834, and twopence paid :

Sir,

I think it right to inform you of a plan that four de-
termined and careless fellows are about to adopt, as by so doing
it will prevent you very serious disappointment to-morrow, and
we are perfectly safe, as by this time it will be impossible for you
to prevent its. being carried into execution. We are perfectly
aware that you and half London expect the ‘Champion’ to
arrive to-morrow filled in and out with Christmas baskets. So
do we! and therefore intend to ease it of its load, which, from
150 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the horses being no longer strained by the weight, will certainly
benefit you, and certainly us by the possession.
Our plan is as follows :

We intend to meet the coach at the top of Dashwood Hill,
with a close tilted van and four horses ; one of us will seize the
guard with a pistol at him, and a second will bring the coachman
down if he dares move. As their assistance will be of great
service to us in unloading, they will not receive the least injury,
provided they are quiet. You will have the kindness to tell the
Welsh rabbits on their calling that they may depend on every
attention being paid to their provisions.

With every respect and esteem,
Believe us,
Yours most affectionately.

Tuesday night.

We trust you will not be offended or hurt by the postage being
paid, which we do from the kindest motives.

Various were the modes which coach-proprietors
adopted for bringing their coaches under the notice of
the public, the employment of sandwich-men being
one method resorted to; thus you would frequently
see a man with a large board back and front of him,
parading up and down Fleet Street, Cheapside, or
some other principal thoroughfare in the City, with
the announcement of a coach which had just been
started; one that had changed proprietors, being
removed, perhaps, from the Belle Sauvage, on Ludgate
Hill, to the Bull and Mouth, St. Martin’s le Grand;
or else one the fares of which had been considerably.
reduced. The City was not so crowded in those days,
and the sandwich-men could loiter along without
COACH PROPRIETORS. 155

 

causing any obstruction or subjecting themselves to
the policeman’s imperative mandate, ‘ Move on.’
Large bills, similar to those carried by the sandwich-
men, were of course posted in the usual way on
walls, hoardings, and other available spaces; and in
the event of its being an opposition coach, similar
bills and modes of publicity would very likely be
adopted by the coach already on the road, each party
inserting in his announcement what he considered
the strongest inducement to travellers to patronize
his coach, so that one might commence with the

heading :
The Tally Ho,
New anp Fast Coach To BIRMINGHAM
In eleven hours.
Every morning (Sundays excepted) at eight,
From the Swan with Two Necks.

The other might begin thus :

GREAT REDUCTION OF FARES!

and then set forth all other particulars as to the time
_and place of starting and destination.

In a country newspaper, published in the year
1764, I chanced to find the following advertisement
relative to a London and Ipswich coach. There are
two singular announcements in it, the one showing
the very small amount of luggage each passenger was
152 THE COACHING AGE,

 

allowed to carry, only eighteen pounds weight; the
other, that the coaches were hung on steel springs,
and did not carry any outside passengers what-

ever.
Ipswich, August 17th, 1764.

The London and Ipswich Post-Coaches

Set out on Monday, the 27th inst., at seven o'clock in the
morning from the Black Bull Inn, in Bishopsgate, London, and at
the same time from the Great White Horse Inn, in Ipswich, and
continue every day (Sunday excepted) to be at the above places
the same evening at five o’clock; each passenger to pay three-
pence per mile, and to be allowed eighteen pounds luggage, all
above to pay one penny per pound, and so in proportion. The
coaches, hung upon steel springs, are very easy, large and
commodious, carry six inside but no outside passengers whatso-
ever; but have great conveniences for parcels or game (to keep
them from the weather), which will be delivered at London and
Ipswich the same night.

As these coaches are set out for the ease and expedition of
gentlemen and ladies travelling, the proprietors humbly hope for
their encouragement, and are determined to spare no pains
to render it as agreeable as they can.

Performed (if God permits) by :

Pet. Sheldon, at the Bull, Bishopsgate Street, London ;
Thomas Archer, at the White Hart, Brentwood ;
Charles Kerry, at the Black Boy, Chelmsford ;

Geo. Reynolds, at the Three Cups, Colchester ; and
Chas. Harris, at the Great White Horse, Ipswich.

N.B. The proprietors will not be answerable for any money,
plate, jewels, or writings, unless entered and paid for as such.

Ipswich is sixty-nine miles from London, so that
the rate of travelling to accomplish the journey in
COACH PROPRIETORS, 153

 

ten hours must have been more than eight miles an
hour, allowing for the time occupied in changing
horses, and dinner somewhere on the road. From
what we read as to the condition of the roads in those
days, and the ordinary rate of travelling, these coaches
must have been a sort of ‘Wonder’ of the period, but
the name does not appear in the advertisement. It
is the only instance I have ever met with of a coach
not carrying any outside passenger.

In addition to these modes of publicity, some pro-
ptietors adopted the plan of having papers slightly
tinted, and somewhat of the consistency and size of
bank-notes, containing information as to their coaches,
circulated among the persons who went to the coach-
office to book places or make any inquiry.

Gray had one of these papers referring to his
coach the ‘ Champion,’ and it was in this form :

= One
Champion ——
0 CHAMPION OF ENGLAND. Post Coach.
“England. . = <5
No. 4534. I promise to convey any Lady or Gentleman, wo, 4534,

on Paying the Sum of One Pound,
1822 from London 1822.

For the Govr- and Compa.
of the Champion of England.

£ One

Another coach and mail proprietor was William
Gilbert, who kept the Blossoms Inn, Laurence Lane,
154 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Cheapside, respecting which there is this notice in the
“History of Signboards’: ‘St. Laurent was the sign
of an inn, in Laurence Lane, Cheapside, but from a
border of blossoms or flowers round it, commonly
called Blossoms Inn.’

Only one mail ran from his inn, and that was the
* Brighton,’ a pair-horse concern. It was not by
any means a fast one, being allowed within a trifle
of seven hours to perform the journey, leaving
Brighton about eleven o’clock at night. This gave
ample time for it to arrive in London among the
other mails with the letters and papers.

Not many coaches ran from the Blossoms Inn ;
but there was rather a noted and fast coach, called
‘The Peveril of the Peak,’ from London to Man-
chester, leaving London in the evening.

Joseph Hearn, proprietor of the King’s Arms at the
bottom of Snow Hill, was in the same position as
Gilbert as regarded mail-coach work, as he hac
cnly one, the Birmingham, a slow mail through
Banbury. He also had a very good Birmingham
coach, the ‘Crown Prince,’ through Banbury and
Warwick. These were about the only long coaches
he had, his business being principally to places in
Buckinghamshire, and a good deal of van and spring
waggon work. His coaches and waggons went to
Aylesbury, Buckingham, and other places to which it
COACH PROPRIETORS. 155

 

seemed that nobody else had any conveyance. The
short distances rendered extraordinary speed un-
necessary, and hence several of his coaches were of
the slow six inside order.

His coach-office was a good deal resorted to, as
it afforded the only means of reaching the places I
have mentioned, as well as many others situated in
the same district ; but except for having one of the
mails, I should not have included him in the list of
the principal coach-proprietors of London.

Robert Fagg, of the Bell and Crown, Holborn, had
two mails only from his inn; the ‘ Louth,’ which he
horsed jointly with Mountain, and the ‘Lynn,’ jointly
with Chaplin. The gateway where his coaches used
to drive in, like that at the Bull and Mouth, has
been thrown into the house, and the yard built
over, so that the old yard and stables are done away
with.

The premises being very limited, when three or
four night-coaches which had arrived in the morn-
ing had been washed and made ready to go out
again in the afternoon, they remained in the yard,
while Her Majesty’s two mails remained in Holborn
all day, in front of the inn. An old man with one
horse and the pole-hook of one mail attached to the
back of the coach he was driving, brought up two
clean mails in the morning from Vidler’s at Millbank,
156 THE COACHING AGE.

 

and returned with the two which had arrived, and
were taken back to be washed, oiled, and overhauled,
ready to go out the next night.

It seems rather strange at the present time to hear
of two mail-coaches standing out in Holborn all day,
but such was the fact, and two or three stage-coaches
used to stand out in the same way lower down at the
Bull Inn, and old Bell, in Holborn.

Not having room for all his horses in the Bell and
Crown yard, Fagg had some stabling in Leather
Lane ; but he had no underground accommodation as
there was at the Swan with Two Necks, and Bull and
Mouth.

I now come to a very noted and spirited female
coach and mail proprietor, and hope I shall not
be .considered deficient in gallantry from having
mentioned so many before her. There were but two
in London, one of whom was Sarah Ann Mountain, of
the Saracen’s Head, Snow Hill, now, like Hearn’s
establishment at the bottom of Snow Hill, entirely
done away with. One at the top, the other at
the bottom of the hill; by the construction of the
Holborn viaduct, both were, I suppose I may say,
improved off the face of the earth.

Mrs. Mountain was a widow, and her business was
managed by her son Peter. The only mail she had
was the ‘ Louth,’ which she horsed jointly with Fagg.
COACH PROPRIETORS. 157

 

Part of a considerable yard at the back of Mrs.
Mountain’s premises was converted into a coach-
maker’s shop, and she built some of her coaches, letting.
them out to the partners with whom she worked, and
charging a mileage for them. She reckoned that she
could build a good comfortable stage-coach for a
hundred and ten or twenty guineas, and let this to the .
company at threepence half-penny a mile. Her
establishment in horses consisted of about two
hundred, and her principal coaches were the ‘ Rock-
ingham’ to Leeds, and one of the ‘Tally Ho’s’ to
Birmingham, known by way of distinction as ‘ Moun-
tain’s Tally Ho.’ ‘

It was an old-established business, having been
carried on, before Mrs. Mountain took to it in 1818,
by her husband, and earlier still by his father. Like
‘Sherman, Mrs. Mountain kept some of her coaches on
the road as long as she could, and ran the ‘ Prince
of Wales,’ a night-coach, to Bristol, in conjunction

a

with other persons, after all the other coaches had
-been taken off ; but ultimately that had to succumb.

I now come to the last of the London coach-pro-
prietors who had a mail, Robert Nelson, of the Bell
Savage, or Belle Sauvage, as it was spelt both ways
on the business advertisements, bills and papers, and
painted on the coaches. He had only one mail, the
London and Norwich, through Newmarket and
158 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Bury. He horsed it thirty-three miles from London
to Hockerill; but it was not a very prosperous
concern, as the Post Office was obliged to pay the
high price of eightpence a mile in order to induce
anyone to work it.

His establishment consisted of about four hundred
horses, and he had a considerable number of coaches,
with some of the fast and fashionable. day-coaches
amongst them, as the ‘ York House’ to Bath, ‘and
‘Berkeley Hunt’ to Cheltenham ; the ‘Red Rover’
to Brighton, and at one time a coach of that name to
Manchester ; on its removal for some cause from his
inn, he started the ‘ Beehive’ to the same place.

I have referred to the antiquity of some of the
London coaching inns, and must not omit what I
find in the ‘ History of Signboards’ about the Belle
Sauvage: ‘Once the property of Lady Arabella Savage,
familiarly called ‘‘ Bell Savage,” which name was
represented in a rebus by a wild man and a bell, and
so it was always drawn on the panels of the coaches
that used to run to and from it... . In the six-
teenth century the Bell Savage appears to have been
a place of amusement... . it existed in the reign
of Henry VI’

The ‘Spectator’ states that it was named after the
French play, ‘ La Belle Sauvage.’

Among the coaches from the Belle Sauvage was the
COACH PROPRIETORS. 159

 

‘Star’ to Cambridge, driven up in the morning and
back again in the afternoon by one Joseph Walton,
popularly known as ‘Joe Walton,’—in fact, I never
heard him called anything else. He had the reputa-
tion of being a first-rate coachman, but I never
travelled with him, or had any opportunity of forming
an opinion as to his abilities on the bench. He was
a tall, powerful man, and, so far as appearance went,
looked as if he could pull all the horses’ heads off.

In addition to the reputation of being a very good
coachman he had that of being of a very bad temper,
in which I am inclined to concur; and although I do
not profess to be a talented physiognomist, I should
say that his countenance and expression warranted
the presumption.

It always annoyed him to have any females on his
coach, and the more so if they had luggage or parcels
which rendered it necessary for them to address him
respecting them, as there was not any guard attached
to the coach. I fear they did not always meet with
a very polite reception.

I have heard that on one occasion a gentleman,
whose hat had blown off, asked ‘Joe’ to pull up, but
he made no attempt to do so; upon which the gentle-
man pushed Joe’s hat off, which of course had the
desired effect—a mode of proceeding which I should
have thought rather dangerous, though it did not, I
160 THE COACHING AGE.

 

believe, lead to any disturbance, perhaps because the
gentleman picked up ‘ Joe’s’ hat and returned it to
him. Walton didn’t certainly look like a man to play
a practical joke on.

Robert Nelson himself was at times rather peculiar
and brusque to persons he came in contact with, but
he was not so rough as Joe Walton.

For instance, a gentleman one day making a
complaint with respect to a coachman or guard,
Nelson closed the discussion by remarking that
if his coachman or guard was not fit for his
place, he wouldn’t be there. On another occasion
a gentleman called to see him, when Nelson sent
word by his waiter that he was engaged; so the
gentleman said he would stay till he was at liberty.
Not wishing to see him, Nelson went out; and the
gentleman, after waiting about an hour, inquired of
the waiter again whether he was disengaged, when he
was told Mr. Nelson had gone out, so of course he
left. On Nelson’s return, he said to the waiter,
‘Well, Charles, how did you get rid of your visitor ?
Charles explained the circumstances under which he
had left, not in the best of tempers.

Although the name of the Belle Sauvage yard is
still preserved, all the buildings in the old yard have
been pulled down, and fine lofty warehouses erected
upon their site.
COACH PROPRIETORS. 161

 

In consequence of the narrowness of Ludgate Hill,
when a coach was coming out of the yard the horse-
keeper always went out first to signal to any approach-
ing vehicles, so that they might be stopped, or the
coachman might wait till they had gone by.

After nearly, if not all, the coaches had been taken
off the western road, a coach called the ‘ Rival’ was
started by Nelson and gome other coach-proprietors,
to run to Cheltenham ; but it was eventually obliged
to be taken off, after a not very long or prosperous
career, I fancy.

Although Nelson had a good many coaches on
the western road through Hounslow, and a sufficient
number of horses standing thereto have an enclosed
square yard with stabling on every side of it, he had
not any West-end booking-office to himself, as Chaplin,
Sherman, and Horne had; but his coaches stopped
and took up their passengers at the general booking-
offices, such as the old and new White Horse Cellar,
the White Bear, or Gloucester Coffee House, in Picca-
dilly, at each of which places they booked passengers
and parcels for several different proprietors.

I have now noticed all the London coach-proprie-
tors who were also mail-coach proprietors ; but there
remains one who was a very celebrated person as a
coach-proprietor only, and who carried on a very ex-

tensive coaching business with great spirit and success
11
162 THE COACHING AGE.

 

in what I may call a remote part of London. It
scarcely seems either polite, especially to a female, or
in order, being one of the largest among the London
proprietors, to have deferred all mention of her until
the last ; but all those I have given some account of
have been concerned in horsing the mails as well as
coaches, so having exhausted the list of those who
combined the two departments, I will now proceed
with the coach-proprietor solely.

Ann Nelson, like Mrs. Mountain, was a widow, her
husband, John Nelson, having carried on business at.
the Bull Inn, Aldgate, up to the time of his death,
when she continued it, with the assistance of her son
John, her son George being the coachman on her
Exeter night-coach, the ‘ Defiance,’ and her other son,
Robert, having the Belle Sauvage. Down in Aldgate,
at quite the East-end of London, most of her coaches.
naturally went on the eastern roads, as Norwich, Ips-
wich, Southend, and most of the places of any import-
ance in Essex and Suffolk. Not that her business was
confined to that district, as she had the Exeter
‘Telegraph’ day-coach, which started from her house
at half-past four in the morning, so that with the
getting up, dressing, and having your breakfast, it
was a good deal like rising in the middle of the
night, or as soon as you were in bed. If, as would
probably, I should imagine, be the case, you failed to
COACH PROPRIETORS. 163

 

get any breakfast at all before starting, you had to
wait until you reached Bagshot at eight o'clock, when
you were allowed the not superabundant period of
twenty minutes for the meal.

I never did get up at what is sometimes called
‘the unearthly hour’ of three in the morning,
and should personally much prefer travelling all
night. I suppose the time spent in getting from
the extreme end of London to the west, and
picking up passengers on the way, rendered such an
early start necessary. The coach called at the Bull
and Mouth, and if at the same places as the night-
coach, the Fountain in Foster Lane, Cheapside, and
at one of the offices in Piccadilly, and was not timed
away from there till half-past five, just an hour after
leaving Aldgate; but the ‘Telegraph’ Manchester
‘day-coach, although going twenty-one miles farther in
the day, did not leave the Bull and Mouth till five,
and the Peacock, Islington, at a quarter past five in
the morning. Quite early enough to turn out on a
winter's morning certainly, and possibly go without
breakfast till Northampton was reached, at twenty
minutes to nine, when, as on the Exeter coach, twenty
minutes only were allowed you to eat as much as you
could, with tea or coffee too hot to drink during that
short time.

The mails were more liberal in their allowance of

11—2
164 THE COACHING AGE.

 

time for breakfast, as the Devonport gave twenty-
five minutes, and the Holyhead thirty-five; while
the London and Edinburgh and Glasgow mails,
whether in consequence of postal arrangements or not
I don’t know, made a stoppage of forty minutes about
breakfast-time at Grantham.

For all Mrs. Nelson’s customers, travelling to and
from the Eastern Counties, considerable accommoda-
tion at a good inn was in brisk demand; and thus
we find that, independently of her coaching-depart-
ment, she had the business of the Bull Inn. I[
adhere to the good old name of ‘inn,’ as it is that
used by herself on the time-bills and other documents,
and her house was universally known as the ‘Bull
Inn, Aldgate,’ to distinguish it from the numerous
Bulls in other places, it being so common as a sign.
Nobody ever heard of the ‘ Bull Hotel, in Aldgate ;’ and
if you had used such an expression, I expect you
would have been pulled up directly with ‘ Oh, I sup-
pose you mean the Bull Inn, Aldgate !’

Up between five and six, and sometimes earlier, in the
morning, dressed in a cap of a peculiar fashion, which
I cannot pretend to describe, Mrs. Nelson was quite a
character, active, and bustling about. She made up
considerably over a hundred beds in her house—in
fact, I have been told that it was nearer two; and she
lodged and boarded about three dozen of her coach-
COACH PROPRIETORS. 165,

 

men and guards, whose comfort and convenience she
studied with great care, their tariff being considerably
lower than that of her customers.

She used to give all her coachmen and guards an
annual dinner, which lasted for three days, so as to
include them all as they arrived in town, which could
not have been accomplished had the entertainment
been restricted to one day only.

A separate room was set apart for their exclusive
use, with a number seven on it, like a commercial
room. No other persons but the guards and coachmen,
or some one invited by them, were allowed to enter it.

Their dinners consisted of soup, fowls, ete., for the
small charge of 1s. 6d.; and they had a whip among
themselves of 2s. 6d. for wine. They paid nothing
for their beds, but used to give the chambermaids two
guineas for a Christmas-box, and paid Is. a week to
the boots, and two guineas as a Christmas-box to the
waiter, who was said to have given £200 for his
situation.

Twelve was about the usual number sitting down
to dinner, occasionally supplemented by the presence
of some ‘swell,’ admitted only on the invitation of
one of the privileged body. The noted Marquis of
Waterford and his friend Captain Duff, together with
the Hon. Robert Kenyon, usually known in his own’
county as ‘His Honour, were occasional visitors,
166 THE COACHING AGRE,

 

together with many other gentlemen who took an
interest in coaching.

Mr. Kenyon was very fond of anything connected
with coaching, having his own four-in-hand, but con-
stantly driving some of the regular coaches. On one
occasion a coachman he knew very well being laid
up by illness, Mr. Kenyon volunteered to drive his
coach for him till he recovered, which was in the
course of three or four weeks, during which time Mr.
Kenyon regularly took his fees from the passengers,
but handed them all over to the coachman, so that he
was not any loser by his temporary absence from the
box.

Some of Mrs. Nelson’s guards wore red coats; in
such cases it was the etiquette to appear at dinner in
them. And it was a rule not to address each other
by their proper names, but by the name of the road
on which a man worked; thus one man would be
addressed as ‘ Exeter,’ another as ‘ Norwich,’ and
so on.

Many of the guards were first-rate performers on
the key-bugle, and it was by no means an unusual
thing for Mrs. Nelson to ask one of them—perhaps
the one going out with the next coach—to play in
the yard for a time for the amusement of herself and
customers,

A most active and energetic woman, she seems
COACH PROPRIETORS. 167

 

to have carried on her business very successfully, and
much to the approbation of those who came in contact
with her, whether as customers or in her service.

Her establishment was quite a model of the good
old inn, which now, I believe, is quite extinct, as the
various requirements for it have ceased to exist,
as well as the means by which it was supported. *
One of the old inns on a main road now, does not
perhaps bear the most lively aspect ; but then, be it
remembered, it is as different as can be from the time
when it was in a constant state of activity throughout
the day, with late arrivals and early departures, and
with coaches coming and going in the course of the
night, with loads of hungry passengers stopping to
supper.

With Mrs. Nelson I think the list of noted coach-
proprietors in London may be closed, although there
were many others carrying on business in a minor
way, having perhaps two or three coaches to Brighton,
or other places, distant only some fifty or sixty miles
from London. Nearly all those I have noticed had
many coaches running from their offices. Although
travelling at a good pace, they were not all perforr-
ing anything extraordinary, like those going the long
distances in the day.

* Since this was written the house has been entirely pulled
down.
168 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Volumes, I suppose, might be filled if even a short
history of all the noted coach-proprietors were written,
and among them would be found the names of
Costar and Waddell, at Oxford ; Several, at Birming-
ham; Lacey and Allen, at Manchester ; Brotherton,
at Liverpool; Teather, at Newcastle; and Piper, of
Edinburgh, whom I may describe as the Chaplin
of Scotland, as he horsed every mail out of Edinburgh,
six in number, besides having a large general coach-

‘ing business.

There were two proprietors of whom I have a
word to say. One, a woman, carrying on business in
the country, but whose coaches were connected with
those running out of London; the other, a. man,
who had coaches out of London, with respect to the
management of which he pursued a method entirely
original,

As‘a mark of respect to the sex I will take Maria
Fromont first, thus contravening the old rule we used
to learn in the grammar, which said: ‘The masculine
is more worthy than the feminine, and the feminine
more worthy than the neuter.’

Miss Fromont was a single woman, who kept the
King’s Head, at Thatcham, and farmed a considerable
quantity of land there.

She was also one of the middle-ground proprietors
of a day-coach running between London and Bristol,
COACH PROPRIETORS. 169

 

up and down every day, including Sundays, through
Calne and Chippenham, and also of a night-coach
running in a similar way ; they were called the ‘ New
Company’s’ coaches. Her house being just fifty-
three miles from London, was nearly equi-distant
from each end of the journey, and hence was a con-
venient place for the down and up day-coaches to
stop at for dinner, and the down and up night-coaches
for supper; a by no means inconsiderable advantage
to a middle-ground proprietor, who frequently had
nothing but the actual sharing to look to. Four
coaches, if loading well, stopping at an inn for dinner
and supper daily or nightly, brought no small amount
of grist to the mill under ordinary circumstances; but
the passengers by Maria Fromont’s coaches were not
of a class to spend much on the road, and many would
carry provisions with them, so as to avoid altogether
the expense of a meal at an inn during the journey.

More particulars as to the coaches she was connected
with will be found in the coaching arrangements
appearing in the Rummer hotel bill; but the fares
being considerably less than any of the other coaches,
she naturally got all the lower-class passengers, a
great number of whom, nothwithstanding even the
reduced charge announced in the bill for a dinner
or supper, would not, I dare say, take a meal.

The fares by the night-coach being very low, did
170 THE COACHING AGE.

 

not admit of the passengers being allowed to carry a
great amount of luggage—in fact, 1 should expect
the majority of them had but little to carry ; but
on the other hand, there were persons who, in order
to avail themselves of the benefit of the reduced
fare, would travel by the coach, trusting to no notice
being taken of any excess in the weight of luggage,
and feeling quite at ease on seeing it put on the coach
without first undergoing the test of the weighing
machine. Had they but known what the practice
was on the arrival of the coaches at the King’s Head,
their equanimity might have been somewhat dis-
turbed.

On arrival the coaches were taken into the yard,
the passengers’ luggage was unloaded and weighed,
and an extra charge was made according to the dis-
tance it had been carried, and the excess of the weight
allowed; and thus in some instances it might turn out
that, although ostensibly cheaper, in fact it was a
dearer coach than the others, with the further draw-
back of being much slower.

This unexpected levying of what was looked upon
as black-mail, used to produce something stronger
than what Mr. Akers, one of the mail inspectors,
denominated ‘severe observations,’ when a portion of
a gentleman’s luggage was taken off the mail in the
General Post Office yard.
COACH PROPRIETORS. 171

 

When disputes arose as to the additional payment,
and passengers, giving vent to their feelings, vowed
they would never travel by that coach again, Miss
Fromont comforted herself with the observation, that
“she didn’t care if she could only see them once,’ the
extra charge making the fare exceed the other
coaches; and as the fares were nominally so very low,
a tolerable number of persons were always going by
the coaches, wholly unaware of what would happen
when they had got half-way on their journey. As
the coach had not any established connection of
passengers frequently going up and down the road,
the threat of not repeating a journey was regarded as
perfectly harmless, and not likely, if carried into
effect, to hurt her at all.

She horsed the coaches from Twyford to Hunger-
ford, a distance of thirty-four miles, for which purpose,
had they been fast coaches, she must have kept
between seventy and eighty horses; but at the quiet
pace at which they travelled, fewer horses would
suffice, and last longer. A coachman described them
as being ‘as fat as pigs;’ and Waude, the coach-
builder, in the Old Kent Road, said the wheels on
her coaches lasted a week or ten days longer than on
his other coaches, that went faster. Unfortunately,
somehow glanders got into the stable, when a large
number of her horses were turned out; in order to
172 THE COACHING AGE.

 

prevent the disease from extending to the other pro-
prietor’s horses working in the coaches, when they
arrived at Twyford fresh poles and bars were put to
the coaches, and her horses worked with them down
to Hungerford, when they were taken off, and others
put on to continue the journey. The same course was
adopted®with the up-coaches when they arrived at
Hungerford.

After the coaches were driven off the road by
the Great Western Railway, she continued to reside
at Thatcham ; but the King’s Head, like many of the
other inns on the old coach-roads, has been converted
into private dwellings.

The other coach-proprietor to whom I have referred.
was Thomas Cooper, who resided in the same village
with Miss Fromont, though their houses were some
little distance apart, hers being just at the entrance
to Thatcham from London, and his ‘ Cottage’ at the
end nearest Bath, but just clear of the village.

At one time he kept the Castle Hotel and posting-
house at Marlborough, a large house, formerly a seat
of the Earl of Hereford, and afterwards of the Duke
of Somerset, built on the site of the old castle,
and hence called the Castle Hotel, a noted house in
the days of road-travelling, but now merged in the
extensive building of Marlborough College.

A story is told of the King of the Belgians stopping
COACH PROPRIETORS. 173

 

at the Castle when Cooper kept it ; and as the King
travelled in regal style, Cooper probably considered
that the bill should be made out on a scale corre-
sponding with the dignity of the traveller, for the
King, on seeing it, observed to some one with him:
‘Ah! this is something like a bill, made out in
a proper way for a king.’

From this I presume that the other innkeepers
along the road were either unaware of the rank
of their royal guest, or fearful of incurring his dis-
pleasure and losing his patronage if their charges
were too high.

Cooper, who was a shrewd man, seems to have hit
on what is sometimes called ‘the most improved
plan.’

He always aimed at expedition on the road, and
his stock direction to the persons he was posting
on, if they were in a hurry, was to tell the post-boys
how long they were to be doing the journey, and if
they did not do it in that time not to pay them;
thus his stock got a deal of wear and tear. He gave
up the Castle and moved up to ‘Thatcham, where he
bought the Cottage, pulled down some of the old
‘buildings, and erected stabling for a considerable
number of horses, the up and down day and night
coaches changing and stopping there for meals.
There was a painting of the Cottage on the doors of
174 THE COACHING AGE.

 

all his coaches, with ‘ Cooper’s Cottage, Thatcham,’
underneath.

On his removal to Thatcham he gave up the post-
ing business, and, I believe in the year 1827, started
his coaches under the name of ‘ Cooper’s Company ;’
but although called a company, I have understood it
was all his own from end to end, which was rather
an arduous undertaking for a man in those days,
considering that a great part of his business must be
far away from his home, and that locomotion then
was not so easy or expeditious as now; neither could
you send a message or directions to any servant at a
distance by a telegram : and hence, having 125 miles
in length to look after, even with the assistance of
foremen and others, who much increased the expenses
of management, it was rather a hazardous undertak-
ing. He was the only man I have ever heard of under-
taking such a task. None of the London proprietors.
would, if they could help it, horse a coach or mail
more than thirty miles out of London; so that,
although they had concerns on a number of different
roads, they were all, so to speak, within a ring-fence,
close at home, and any part of them could be reached
from London in three or four hours. But it was
vastly otherwise with a man who, being in London,
might receive an urgent letter requiring his immediate
presence in Bristol. As all the day-coaches for that
COACH PROPRIETORS. 175

 

place would have left London before the letters were
delivered in the morning, it would be necessary to wait
for a night coach or mail going down, which would
not arrive at Bristol till all the up day-coaches had
left, thus obliging you to wait there for an up night-
coach before you could get up the road again.

I fancy that this inability to frequently inspect his
stock and business all up and down the road subjected
Cooper to a great deal of loss, notwithstanding that
he was a very active man and seemed always to be
about.

He had not any coaching inn of his own in London,
but his coaches started from the White Bear, in
Basinghall Street, long since entirely abolished. I
am not aware that any other coaches ran from the
same place. They subsequently started from the
George Inn, Aldermanbury.

In like manner, at the Bristol end, Cooper did not
run to one of the coaching inns, but his booking-office
was at No. 6 in the High Street, exactly opposite
the Rummer Hotel, from which the ‘New Company ’
ran. I suppose it was when the New Company was
started that Cooper, to distinguish his, called it the
‘Old Company,’ the name by which it was always
known, or else ‘ Cooper’s Coach ’—there was not any
proprietor’s name on it but his.

The system of passengers giving no fees to the
176 THE COACHING AGE.

 

coachmen and guards, who were entirely paid by
Cooper, notwithstanding remarks I have heard con-
demning it, was, I believe, favourably regarded by
the public, and was certainly adopted by other London
proprietors, as Chaplin and Nelson both ran coaches
on it; and of course Cooper’s opponents, the New
Company, were obliged to fall in with it when they
started.

So far from coming down on his passengers with
charges for extra luggage, Cooper pursued the oppo-
site plan, very injudiciously, and much to his own
loss and injury. In those days, for a great deal of
heavy luggage, where expedition was indispensable,
and the goods were wanted immediately, the heavy,
strong, and large night-coaches were the only avail-
able means of transit. There might not be on the
road even what was called a fly-waggon, a vehicle
somewhat lighter and quicker than the broad-wheeled
waggon, which never went out of a walking pace.

Cooper did not restrict his passengers in the
quantity of luggage they might take, or make any
charge for it. This, of course, soon became
known; and the plan that commercial men and
many persons going up to London to purchase
quantities of goods adopted, would be to travel up
by the mail, make their purchases, and then return
by Cooper’s night-coaches with their heavy packages.
COACH PROPRIETORS. 77

 

Thus the coaches were heavily laden every night with
passengers and their goods, in addition to which
they used to carry samples of wool from London to
Melksham, where they were taken off for Bradford ;
but these, of which there might be forty or fifty
hung on to the net, were paid for at about eighteen-
pence each, not being passengers’ luggage.

So heavy were the loads those night-coaches used
to carry, that they were built with an extra leaf
in the springs, in order to prevent the coach from
settling down on the axle. Some idea may be
formed of the weights the horses had to draw in
these night-coaches, as, on putting one on the
weighing-table at Beckhampton gate one night, it
was found to be four tons and a half, no trifle
for each horse, especially as they were timed at a
pretty good pace, being only allowed six hours to do
the fifty-three miles between London and Thatcham,
and the same pace on the lower ground, some parts
of which were very hilly, taking Marlborough Hill for
instance, up which many of the coaches always had
six horses.

Although Cooper’s coaches were popular and loaded
well, the wear and tear of his stock was very great,
from the loads they used to carry, added, perhaps, to
the want of personal supervision over such a long
distance; so there was generally at Thatcham a

12
178 THE COACHING AGE.

 

large number of temporarily disabled horses, whose
places were filled up by a man named Alexander of the
Barbican. The cottage, stables, and paddock were a sort
of hospital for his sick and otherwise inefficient stock,
and it was by no means an unusual thing for Mrs:
Cooper to turn up her sleeves and make bran-mashes
upon an emergency for some of the horses.

Among his coachmen was one with a wooden leg,
who married Cooper’s sister or daughter, and from
this circumstance, I suppose, had sufficient interest to
get put on the coach and drive from London to
Thatcham, down one day and up the next.

Curiously enough, when this man was about to get
married, he bought a cork leg for the occasion.
Whether under the impression that it might be the
right thing in the right place in the event of the
‘Cork Leg’ being sung at the wedding breakfast, or
with the idea that he would be somewhat raised in
the bride’s estimation if he led her to the hymeneal
altar with a cork leg instead of his ordinary wooden
appendage, I don’t know; at all events, she declined
the intended compliment, and expressed her deter-
mination not to marry him at all unless he was
married with the wooden leg, to which he accordingly
consented.

What became of the cork leg I don’t know, nor do
I suppose at this distance of time there is any means
COACH PROPRIETORS. 179

 

of ascertaining. Asa coachman on the Bristol road
said to me a few years since: ‘I should think he
must be dead, wooden leg and all.’

Cooper’s coachmen were mostly large powerful
men, but he ultimately found out that smaller yet
quicker and more active young men were better, as
he observed to one of this class that it would have
saved him some thousands of pounds if he had
employed men of that calibre earlier. Before he
had formed this opinion a thin young man one day
applied to Cooper to be put on one of his coaches.
He was, however, so much smaller than his usual
standard that Cooper looked at him with some little
surprise and smiled, giving the applicant to under-
stand that he was not big enough for the place; he
did, however, eventually get put on, and for some
time drove the night-coach on the lower ground from
Thatcham to Bristol, was afterwards moved on to the
upper ground, and continued to drive up and down
from London as long as the coaches remained on the
road.

As Cooper was particular about time being kept,
no coaches being allowed to pass his, in answer to any
complaints by the coachmen as to the horses, his
answer was sometimes: ‘ You find whipcord and I'll
find horses.’

After carrying on the coaches for some years, and
12—2
180 THE COACHING AGE,

 

losing a large sum of money by posting and coach-
ing—no less, it was said, than £20,000—Cooper
found a difficulty in providing money for purchasing
horses so frequently, and paying all his other ex-
penses; so that, in order to secure themselves, men at
each end took all the money as it was earned by the
coaches, Cooper’s horses were very badly kept, and he
became bankrupt at the end of the year 1832, when
the coaches were taken over by Chaplin, moved from
the George Inn, Aldermanbury, to the Swan with two
Necks, Lad Lane, and horsed by him down to
Thatcham, and from thence to Bristol by Niblett, of
the White Lion there, and Lane, of Bath. The
coaches then were very well done, and still stopped at
the Cottage for meals as before, Cooper continuing
to reside there, and acting, I take it, as manager to
the proprietors by some arrangement.

When the coaches were driven off the road Chaplin
got Cooper the appointment of stationmaster at Rich-
mond, where he died, after having filled the office
a good many years, and, I rather think, retired on a
pension.

The frequent payments travellers were called upon
to make at hotels for waiters, chambermaids, boots
and porters, led to the adoption of the system of
making a fixed inclusive charge for servants in hotel
bills, which I believe is almost universally approved
COACH PROPRIETORS. 181

 

by travellers, and this probably suggested to Cooper
the idea of his guards and coachmen being entirely
paid by himself.

Asa proof that travellers on the Bath road were
not all so satisfied with a long bill as the King of the
Belgians was with his account at Marlborough, we
may quote Jekyl’s well-known epigram :

‘The Pelican at Speenhamland;
That stands below the hill,

May well be called the Pelican
From his enormous bill.’
CHAPTER IX.
NO HORSES, NO COACHMAN.

CoACH-PROPRIETORS, like partners in other businesses,
would sometimes have differences among themselves,
when one of them would threaten to take his horses
off, which might be the means of carrying his point;
failing which he might even put his threat into exe-
cution, leaving the other partners to carry on the
coach as best they could.

I know only of one instance in which this actually
occurred ; it was on the old Shrewsbury ‘ Union,’
which ran through Birmingham, Oxford, and
Woodstock, and on the arrival of the coach in the
night on its up-journey, at the inn where it changed
in Woodstock there were not any horses to go on.
Ultimately, however, four were procured, but not
having regular four-horse harness they could not be
driven. There was, moreover, only one postboy on
the spot, and he, being drunk, was not available. Jn
this state of things there appeared to be but one
course to adopt, which was accordingly put into
NO HORSES, NO COACHMAN. 183

 

operation: the coachman drove the wheelers and the
guard was extemporized as a jolly postboy, riding one
of the leaders in the orthodox postboy style, barring
his dress, and in this way the twelve-mile stage was
got through.

Another instance of a sudden and unexpected
change in the horses at the end of a stage occurred
once at St. Albans; where, so far from there being
no horses to go on there was an excess, two teams
being ready to be put to, though only one, of course,
could be used.

The Halifax ‘ Hope’ was horsed out of London by
‘a man carrying on his business in Little Britain.
Some differences had arisen between him and Sher-
man, of the Bull and Mouth, who was desirous of
getting the ‘Hope’ removed to his house; but not
having succeeded in accomplishing this, he resorted
to a practical and effectual mode of carrying out his
wish. On the up-journey of the coach, when it
reached St. Albans very early in the morning, he had
four horses ready to be put to, notwithstanding that
the proper team was also there; but, probably pre-
pared for any obstacles he might find to his horses
being put in, he was ready with sufficient assistance,
and actually had the coach taken on by his own
horses, changing at his own stables between London
and St. Albans, and having the coach driven into the
Bull and Mouth yard.
184 THE COACHING AGE.

 

What the precise nature of the dispute was, or how
it was eventually settled, I don’t know, except that
Sherman so far won the day as to secure the coach,
which ran regularly from the Bull and Mouth till
knocked off the road by the railways.

Having now given an instance in which there were
not any horses provided in the regular way to take
on a coach, and ‘another in which there was an excess
of horses for the purpose, I will say a word or two
about the coachman, and what would be the conse-
quence of any. unexpected difficulty with him.

In towns of any size, on the main roads where
coaches did not merely run through, after stopping to
change, but either stopped for meals, or because they
were at the end of the journey, there generally might
be found a spare coachman, some man who was out of
employment, who had brought his coach down and had
not to go out again until the.next day or night, or some
one about the inn possessing the capability of driving
a coach, and only too glad, perhaps, if any opportunity
occurred, of putting his abilities to the test. In the
daytime there were generally some persons standing
about a large coaching inn at the time of arrival or
departure of a coach, but in the night there were not
any spectators to witness this event.

Coaches have been stopped in the course of their
journeys from various causes, such as highwaymen,
dATHCA OL YANO ON- OD OL ACVae
‘duit aeyuey

“UI, 72 Pp ssabunyqg'r

 

 
NO HORSES, NO COACHMAN. 185

 

accidents of different kinds, as break-downs and
up-sets, also from floods or deep snows, but I do not
know of more than one coach having to stop in the
night in a large town on one of the principal roads
from London for want of a coachman.

The occasion to which I refer happened on the
London and Bristol road, on which a night-coach
called the ‘Monarch’ ran, and would reach Reading
about two o’clock in the morning. Here the coach-
man was—or, as I have heard it insinuated, pretended
to be—taken ill, and unable to proceed with the coach.

Here was a pretty dilemma: a coach-load of pas-
sengers, and with luggage well piled up on the roof,
was standing in the street with the horses ready to go
on, but no one to drive them !

Sometimes the guards could drive; in such cases
there was little difficulty in getting them temporarily
to fill the coachman’s place. But it happened that
on this occasion the guard was not competent to
undertake the duty, and questions began to be asked
as to how and when the coach was to get on, when
some one connected with the inn, probably the boots,
said there was a young man staying there who was
very fond of driving, and sometimes drove some of
the coaches; and it was suggested that he might be
roused up, and asked to undertake to drive the
coach up to London. No one being able to propose
186 THE COACHING AGE.’

 

another plan, measures were at once taken to put this
one into execution. Some one went to his bed-
room, woke him up, and asked if he would take
on the coach. He expressed his willingness to do
so, dressed himself as expeditiously as he could,
went down, and found the coach and horses ready in
the street waiting for him to start. He at once
mounted the box and drove up to London into the
Bull and Mouth yard, to which place the coach then
ran. He was a small, thin young fellow, oaly about
eighteen, and not being a professional coachman had
no idea that he would be required to take the coach
down again on its way out of London that night, but
concluded that some man would be found to dis-
charge the duty. He was, however, requested to
undertake it, and drove down to Newbury, fifty-six
miles from London, being the place where the coach-
man always changed.

The young man was intended for the medical pro-
fession, but from family circumstances he abandoned
that career, and eventually became a professional
coachman.

For about twelve persons to be sitting upon a
‘Monarch’ in the night, in the main street of a large
town, without any means of progressing, was not an
ordinary occurrence, and the passengers certainly were
not ‘ monarchs of all they surveyed.’
NO HORSES, NO COACHMAN. 187

 

The task of undertaking to drive the coach in this
instance was not so difficult as it might have been
in other parts of the country, as the road between
Reading and London is so level that there is not
anything that can really be called a hill through-
out the whole length. It would have been other-
wise had a coachman been wanted on the lower
ground, where he would have had Marlborough and
some other hills to negotiate. The coach, moreover,
was a heavy loading one, not travelling at a fast pace,
or very strictly limited to time, so that there was not
any risk of an upset in consequence of having to go
at great speed.
CHAPTER X.
COACHING BUSINESS.

As coaching and mail-travelling on the roads were
always strictly carried on as business undertakings, it
may not be altogether uninteresting to see something
of how they were managed, what were their expenses,
what their receipts, and how the money was divided
among the different proprietors. It was once said by
Sir Henry Parnell, M.P., who took a great deal of
interest in road-travelling, and acquired a great deal
of information about it, that it was necessary to be
on one’s guard in listening to statements on any
points connected with coach business, and that he
would trust to nothing but the actual accounts of the
earnings of the different kinds of coaches, whether
ordinary stage-coaches, by night or day, or mail-
coaches. The expense, he added, actually incurred in
horsing the mails would be better ascertained by
seeing what the profits were which the proprietors
divided among themselves, because that would give
the means of ascertaining at what rate they would
COACHING BUSINESS. 189

 

undertake the horsing of a coach, and at what rate
they would decline to continue to horse one. But he
said it was difficult to see those accounts and acquire
that knowledge ; though the accounts were.so kept
and settled that there was no trade in which the
persons engaged knew so correctly what profits they
were making, as the settlements took place every
four weeks.

He was engaged for years in overcoming the
opposition of the Postmaster-General to some im-
provements and acceleration of the Holyhead mail,
and in the course of that time he made it his
business to get all the information he could upon
the subject of mail-coaches. This he thought he
had obtained in a very complete manner, as Mr.
Waterhouse, who was then (in 1836) the proprietor
of the Swan with two Necks coach-oflice, allowed
him to see all his books and explained everything
he wished to know with regard to the horsing
of the mails; he also acquired a knowledge of the
business of stage-coaches from the son of his land
agent being a proprietor of one of the Holyhead
coaches, constantly examining and seeing his books,
and exercising a sort of superintendence over his
establishment.

The Swan with two Necks establishment, now
considerably altered and converted into a goods
190 THE COACHING AGE.

 

department of Messrs. Chaplin and Horne’s railway-
carrying business, is very different from what it was
in the little narrow lane in the coaching-days. The
City, indeed, is vastly altered in many places from
what it was in those days, and many of the coach-
offices, where a considerable business was done, were
situated in narrow by-streets or lanes.

Apropos of this, there used to be a story told of a
medical man of considerable practice in the City
requiring a coachman thoroughly acquainted with
the geography of the City to drive him on his
rounds to see his patients. An applicant for the
situation called upon the doctor with a view to being
engaged. The first thing the doctor did was to put
the man through a course of examination on his
geographical knowledge, in which, according to his
own notion, the man was perfect, saying that he knew
every place in the City well, and that the doctor
could not name one with which he was unac-
quainted. Not satisfied with this confident and
sweeping assertion, the doctor proceeded to test
the accuracy and truth of the man’s statements in
this way :

‘Do you know the Wonderful Bird, Boy Lane,
Timber Street, Reasonable Place ?”’

This was rather too much for the man, who, after
some consideration, was reluctantly obliged to admit
COACHING BUSINESS. 191

 

that he was not acquainted with the localities re-
ferred to.

The doctor then put the same question, in fact,
though differently expressed, and said :

‘Do you know the Swan with two Necks, Lad
Lane, Wood Street, Cheapside ?

Of course the man did.

To return, after this digression, to coaching busi-
ness. Quite concurring in Sir Henry Parnell’s obser-
vation as to not trusting to anything about coaching
business but the actual accounts, I do not intend
to set up my knowledge in competition with his
experience, or to ask my readers to receive my
statements without the necessary precaution he
advises ; hence I shall set out some coaching accounts
copied from the originals, and therefore to be de-
pended upon. Accounts, perhaps, as a rule, are not
very interesting things to read. Of course, if they
happen to show a large balance in your favour, and of
which you are to be an early recipient, it is another
matter. I think, however, the accounts I am giving,
as they are neither long nor complicated, and relate
to different coaches and roads, may not be found
altogether unacceptable. They show also how they
were made up, and the money divided every twenty-
eight days, and in this respect differ, I think, from
those kept in any other trade. Although the
+

192 THE COACHING AGE.

 

proprietors were all considered partners, each man
provided his own horses and harness, and any
loss by death or ctherwise in his stock fell upon
himself solely, and was not borne by the general
body.

As has been already observed, no traders knew
so well what profits they were making as persons
engaged in the coaching trade, as their settlements
took place every four weeks; in fact, they might
be said to resemble what Sydney Smith, I think, de-
scribed as ‘the beautiful simplicity of the three per
cents.’

Coaching might be called a ready-money business,
the fares being paid at the time of booking the place,
or at the end of the journey at furthest. There were
some persons known as regular customers, or with a
large carrying business to and from London and
manufacturing places, who might run short ac-
counts; but the country partners always expected to
receive their share of the earnings at every monthly
settlement, which rendered it incumbent upon the
endmen, who usually received all the money, to have
it in hand ready to be paid over to the different
middle-ground men.

A person who was perfectly conversant with coach-
ing accounts, having to make up and keep those
of some twelve or thirteen different coaches, drew up
COACHING BUSINESS. 193

 

the following statement principally as showing the
heavy taxation to which the coaching business was
subject, in order to illustrate the great difference
there was in this respect between land and water
travelling :

STATEMENT OF DUTIES AND OTHER EXPENDITURE OF THE

‘WELLINGTON’ CoAcH FROM LONDON TO NEWCASTLE, 364
Days.

Duty for four inside and eleven out, sixpence a £ s d
double mile ; that is, up and down, 278 miles 2,529 16 90
Stamps for receipts on payment of ditto 112 6
Four licenses for coaches being used successively
up and down - 20 0 0
Assessed taxes on coachmen and guards 17 10 0

£2,568 18 6

But subsequently to the month of November, 1836,
the duty paid was one-seventh less, or £2,168 8s.,
the coach-proprietors having been compelled, from
the deterioration in their trade, to stop the coaches
one day in the week.

So far, it will be seen that the taxes payable to
Government amounted to a considerable sum.

The other charges incidental to the working of the
‘coach were put down as—

£ 5s. d
Tolls annually 2,537 7 8
Expense of the coaches hired at a rate per mile 1,274 0 0
Other incidental matters about - -800 0 0

£4,611 7 8
13
194 THE COACHING AGE.

 

The tolls and coach-hire were also reduced one-
seventh, in consequence of the stoppage of one day
in seven, as before stated, leaving the annual expense
of the coach still at about £6,000, without reckoning
the horses, of which there were about 250 in constant
service.

On the other side of the account, taking it in com-
parison with steam conveyance, the rates of travelling
were :

FARES BY CoAcH FROM LoNDON TO NEWCASTLE.

Inside -£410 0
Outside “9 5 0
With road expenses.
By steamers passengers were conveyed the same
distance :

In best cabin -£3 0 0
In fore cabin 2 0 0
Including provisions and all expenses.
From London to York the coach fares were :
Inside -£3 5 0
Outside 114 0
London to York, vd Hull, by steamer:

Best cabin -£0 8 0
Fore cabin 0°'4 6
Expenses not included.

Before recording any of the actual sharing accounts
of mail or coach proprietors, I think a few words as to
the general and indispensable expenses incidental to
COACHING BUSINESS. 195

 

the business may not be out of place, especially as
they varied greatly from the expenses of coaching in
the present day, and therefore may prove interesting
to those who are now carrying it on either for profit
or pleasure.

I will commence with turnpikes, which certainly
were a heavy item in the expenses of a coach,
averaging as they did, according to the experience of
some of the large coach-proprietors, no less a sum than
11s. 6d. a mile a month. All the turnpikes in and
around London having been removed, this sum does
not appear among the disbursements now. The
assessed taxes of various descriptions, now either
considerably reduced or altogether discontinued,
helped to swell up the list of expenses. There was a
payment of £5 for every coachman and guard, a like
sum for every coach, so that in cases where two
coaches were running, one up and the other down,
the amount would be £10, while for long distances
requiring three or four coaches to be used, there
would be a proportionate increase.

The next important item of disbursement was the
duty on a, stage-coach—or perhaps it should more pro-
perly be called a duty on the passengers, as it was pro-
gressive, and dependent upon the number of passengers
the coach was licensed to convey, though it had to be
paid irrespective of any passengers at all being carried.

13—2
196 THE COACHING AGE.

 

At one time it was fixed at threepence a mile for a
coach licensed to carry fifteen passengers, which would
cover four inside and eleven out; another passenger,
making a total of sixteen, would have added another
halfpenny a mile to the duty.

In various years, however, these duties were altered,
both as to the amount charged and the numbers
allowed to be carried, so that no definite calculation
of the expenditure under this head can be arrived at.
It, however, was sufficiently important to make it
worth the coach-proprietor’s while to reduce it to the
lowest amount practicable, and in order to accom-
plish this it was usual when the winter season was
coming on to lessen the number for which the
license was taken out at the Stamp Office, so that
during the winter months a coach might only be
licensed to carry eight out and four inside; but when
the summer came round again and trade was found
to be increasing, the license was altered at the Stamp
Office for the increased number, and payment of the
additional duty consequent upon it. This duty,
although considerable, was looked upon by the coach-
proprietors in the light of a protection, prevent-
ing persons from recklessly starting coaches with-
out the means of keeping them on the road, but
seriously interfering with those established, and pro-
bably entailing a considerable reduction in their fares
COACHING BUSINESS. 197

 

—hence the proprietors did not desire the total
abolition of the tax.

It may be asked, perhaps, what check there was
on a proprietor taking out a license for a small num-
ber of passengers, and paying the reduced scale of
duty accordingly, but carrying the larger number on
his coach, which, of course, remained unaltered, and
capable of carrying the larger, although only licensed
for the smaller number. The answer is this—there
were in those days many penalties to which coach-
proprietors were liable for any trivial infraction of
the law, and among others was a penalty for having
the luggage above a certain height on the roof.

As these were penalties to be recovered by those
who would take the trouble, and did not mind the
odium attached to the necessary proceedings, there
were some men who were perfectly notorious as
common informers, principally against persons com-
mitting offences on the road against the Turnpike
or other Acts. As the informers got half, or perhaps
in some cases more, of the penalty, they made a
living by it. Facilities were afforded by the Act
of Parliament for getting the luggage measured,
while the number a coach was licensed to carry
was bound to be conspicuously painted on it in the
place and manner from time to time specified ; so,
in the event of the coachman taking up a passenger
198 -THE COACHING AGE.

 

over his proper number, the common informer, who-
was somewhere on the road looking out, would count
the passengers, and, seeing the number the coach was
licensed for, would lay an information before a magis-
trate against the proprietor, and obtain a share of the
penalty inflicted on him for. carrying more than his
number. It must by no means be supposed that the
common informer confined his attentions to the coach-
proprietor, as he was ready. to pounce down upon
traveller, post-boy, or driver of waggon, cart, or any
other vehicle whom he found ‘infringing the laws of
the road or the Turnpike Act. A turnpike-gate
keeper also might afford him occasionally a slight
increase in his income by some breach of the provisions
of the Turnpike Act—neglecting to have his name
or table of tolls up over the turnpike-house, demand-
ing too much toll, omitting to give a ticket, ete.
There was yet another item of expenditure in the
coach-proprietor’s account, which, like the duty, was
payable according to the number of miles the coach
ran, but was in no way dependent upon the number
of passengers which the coach was licensed to carry.
The mileage for the hire of the coach was, as now,
purely a matter of arrangement between the coach-
proprietor and the builder, varying but little in the
scale—from twopence to threepence a mile would
probably cover the highest and lowest charge, and
COACHING BUSINESS. 199

 

the general average paid by the London proprietors
may be taken at twopence halfpenny. The coach-
builder had his coaches running all through the
year, and thus earning him money daily, with the
certainty where it was a popular and well-established
coach that it would continue ; but, on the other hand,
if a fresh coach was put on and found not to answer,
it would remain on his hands, and could not be put
on the road again without undergoing the process of
repainting and lettering. In a very few instances
coach-proprietors bought the coaches outright, but
sometimes one proprietor would have the coach and
arrange with his partners to hire it of him at a
mileage, as in the ordinary way from a builder.

Other expenses there were to be provided for
before any sharing could take place, such as wages of
coachmen and guards, advertising, booking-offices,
etc. ; the main expense of getting the coach through
the country—that is, horsing it—was different from
the foregoing, which may be designated general,
being deducted in the first instance out of the total
receipts of the whole concern, while the horsing
expenses fell upon the different proprietors indi-
vidually according to the length of ground they
covered.

The following is a sharing account, as made out
amongst all the proprietors; but it appears to be for
200 THE COACHING AGE.

 

fourteen days only instead of the usual period of

twenty-eight :

‘MonarcH’—LONDON AND Bristol Nigut-CoacHt

FROM 15TH TO 28TH JUNE, 1834.

£ ss. d.
RECEIPTS - - 414 8 6

£414 8 6

 

 

DISBURSEMENTS :

Mr. Nelson.

‘ s. d.

Washing 14 0

Oil 18 0

Taxes 3 10
Porter and

Inspector 25 4

 

Mr. Niblett.
Tolls - £32 9
Wages* 32 0
Mileage 19 14
Settling 1 1
Oil 0 18
Washing 0 14
Duty 42 14
Inspector 0 10

ovooonom

 

Shares, £2 5s. per
Mile.
Mr. Nelson,
244 -£54 11
Mr. Niblett,
34 76 10
Mr. Lane,
19 42 15
Mr. Hunt,
33 51 15
Mr. Batten,
142 - 33 3
Mr. Hicks,
10 22 10
0 0.

i)

wo fF oS Oo SO

£

130

8.

ad.

to

1°

———— 281 5 3
£414 8 6

 

 

* It may be noticed that in this account there is a sum
of £32 charged as wages; this was for the coachmen, four
COACHING BUSINESS. 201

 

From this it will be observed that the coach would
earn £4 10s, a mile in twenty-eight days, a rate at.
which the proprietors could work it with a fair
profit. ~

The next account, although on the same road, is
made out differently, being a mail instead of a stage
coach account. For instance, the coachmen only
received a small weekly sum from the proprietor, as
they took fees from the passengers, as did also the
guards, although they were the servants of the
Postmaster-General; but he only paid them the
trifling sum of ten shillings a week, on which, of
course, they could not have lived, especially as they
were obliged to have two lodging-places, one in
London and one at Bristol. As on the other coaches,
‘the distance between the two places being only 125
miles, three guards performed the duty; but in
consequence of the arrangements by the Post-Office
authorities, as to the time of the mails leaving London
and Bristol, the proprietors found it more convenient

 

in number—being two, one up and the other down, between
London and Newbury, fifty-six miles, and two below, between
Newbury and Bristol, sixty-nine miles—and three guards, one up
and the other down all the way, and one at rest; one man resting
every third night. The coachman and guards were all paid by
the proprietors of this coach, in order to relieve the passengers
from the expense, and what was considered sometimes the annoy-
ance of being frequently called upon to take out their money for
the purpose.
202 THE COACHING AGE.

 

for two men to drive up and down between London
and Newbury, while another drove down to Calne,
thirty-one miles, where the coachman, who had driven
up there from Bristol, returned with the down mail.
In the meantime the mails had passeil near Hunger-
ford, another coachman, who had met the up-mail at
Calne, taking it on to Newbury, so that altogether
there were five coachmen employed, instead of four,
as on the stage-coaches. Another reason might have
been that the proprietors considered that driving sixty-
nine miles without any stoppage, and all night-work,
on such a fast mail as the Bristol was too hard
work, and that it was a better plan to have a break
at Calne.

It further had this advantage, that the proprietor
who horsed the mail up and down between Newbury
and Calne appointed his own coachmen, so that his
horses were not driven by any persons but those in
his own service, and under his sole control. It also
happened that Mr. Waller, who was the proprietor on
this part of the road, had two sons, one or both of
whom always drove the mail, while a man named
Tom Mower, who married a daughter of Waller’s,
drove from Calne downwards. That driving, although
with him it was all night-work, must have suited his
constitution, appears from the fact that he drove the
mail for twenty-five years, up to the time of its being
COACHING BUSINESS. 203

 

taken off the road by the Great Western Railway, and
he died within the last few years a good deal over
eighty years of age.

The London and Bath mail, which ran through
Devizes and Melksham, was horsed by different persons
from the Bristol below Newbury, and having to travel
only fifty-two miles from there to Bath, adopted the
same plan as the coaches having four coachmen only,
and changed them both up and down at Newbury.
204

THE COACHING AGE.

 

BrisToL AND LonDON Roya MAiL, FOUR WEEKS, FROM
lst TO 28TH DECEMBER, 1839.

RECEIPTS.

Mr. Townsend -
Mr. Chaplin -

£

£ s. d.
255 14 7
379 19 O

635 13 7

 

 

DISBURSEMENTS.
Mr. Lane. £ s.
Settling - £2 20
West’s par-
cels 22

a.

0

4 4 0

 

Mr. Townsend,
Coachmen’s wages -
Mr. Hunt.
Inspecting at New-

bury - 1d
Mr. Chaplin.
Duty and
Stamp £28 1
Coachmen
Runners -
Inspector
Advertis-
ing -
Mr. Love-
grove's
mileage,
13 miles
at£44s, 54 12 0
— 95
Shares, at
£4 14s, Od.
Mr. Townsend 13
Mr. Lane -19
Mr. Waller - 314
Mr. Hunt 17 -
Mr. Love- ,
grove 64 -
Mr. Chaplin - 244 - 115

1114 £635 13 7

10 16 0

04
8 80
113 4
1 80

60

01

“1
%

 

61
89
- 148
79

LOM bo
TADS

18

30 11 3
3 10

 

 

For some reason, which I am unable to explain,
although Mr. Lovegrove horsed the Bristol mail
nineteen miles and a half, as shown in the above
COACHING BUSINESS. 205

 

account, he only received. the same mileage as the
other proprietors, at the rate of £4 14s. on six miles
and a half, but was paid a fixed sum of four guineas
a mile upon the other thirteen miles. I rather think
it must have been a private arrangement between
himself and Mr. Chaplin, whose name in the sharing
account, it will be seen, is down for twenty-four and
a half miles only, while in the Post-Office contract it
is down for twenty-eight miles, seven furlongs ; but he
only actually provided the horses as far as Maidenhead.

The two mails, that is, the Bath and the Bristol,
according to the Post-Office contract were horsed
throughout thus :

LonpOoN AND BATH.

M. F.
Chaplin, William - 28 7
Lovegrove, Robert 17 6
March, James 12 1
Hunt, Samuel_—s- Il 1
Company 7 2
Parsons, Edward 14 0
Lane, William - 19 3
Lonpon AND BRISTOL.
M. F.
Chaplin, William 28 7
Lovegrove, Robert 17 6
Hunt, Samuel - 7 12 1
Waller, John 31 3
Lane, William 18 3
4

Townsend, John and Son - 12

The following is a sharing account of a London,
Gloucester, and Hereford coach, showing the earnings
206

THE COACHING AGE.

 

daily or nightly—I have not the name of the coach, and.
do not know whether it was a day or night coach :

1806. £s. da
Balance 218 11

Sept. 8. Monday - 26 7 3
» 9 Tuesday 33.19 6
» 10. Wednesday 29 4 0
» ll. Thursday 33 18 6
, 12. Friday 23 3 8
» 18. Saturday 37 9 6
» 14. Sunday 33 10 9
» 15. Monday Il 5 4
,, 16. Tuesday 37 1 0
» L7. Wednesday 26 2 0
, 18. Thursday 28 12 4
» 19. Friday 2112 0
» 20. Saturday 20 3 6
» 21. Sunday 45 11 10
», 22. Monday 22 8 10
», 23. Tuesday 36 13 8
», 24. Wednesday 28 16 8
» 25. Thursday 37 8 3
» 26. Friday 2912 0
» 27. Saturday 44 0 1
,, 28. Sunday 32 4 6
5, 29. Monday 21 4 3
», 80. Tuesday 32 16 4
Oct. 1. Wednesday 13 15 6
» 2. Thursday 4612 5.
» 9 Friday 23 19 17
» 4. Saturday 23 8 0
5. Sunday 38 7 2

£842 7 4

 

 

 

 

 

1806.
Sept. 2. £ 8s. d
Expensesat Oxford 9 7 7
Wright, printing
and advertising - 24 12 6
Two post-chaises 9 5 6
Duty from London
to Gloucester 6117 8
Ditto, Gloucester to
Hereford 10 0 0
Tolls 61 0 8
Extra tolls 5 18 11
Mileage 4114 9
Booking and greas-
ing, London 5 14 0
Ditto, Oxford 216 0
Ditto, Cheltenham 2 2 0
Ditto, Gloucester 3 2 0
Ditto, Hereford 2 8 0
Look-out - 216 0
Booking at Beacons-
field - 7 7 0
Lamp . oil, two
months 414 3
Post-chaise 2 5 9
New lamps 1 2 0
259° 4 7
Shared £126 Os. 3d.
at £4 15s. 599 18 6
859 3 1
842 7 4

‘Balance- £16 15 7

 

 

By a Portsmouth ‘Diligence’ account from
March 26 to September 29, 1783, the sharing was

£8 2s. 3d per mile.
COACHING BUSINESS. 207

 

£ 8 4
The gross earnings 845 8 8
Disbursements 261 4 2
Seventy-two miles—divided - £584 4 6

The disbursements above seem to be heavy, but, as
will be seen, they were made at different places along
the road by tacit arrangement, and no inquiries were
made into them, nor was any verification of them
required.

The payments for post-chaises must, I presume,
have been for forwarding travellers when the coaches
were full.

The charge of seven guineas for booking at
Beaconsfield seems heavy, and exceeds even those in
London and other places on the road, but why I
cannot explain. Notwithstanding, however, the heavy
disbursements, the sharing of £4 15s. a mile is good.

Having given some instances of the amounts
received and disbursed in conducting the English
coaching business, I will only add one of the ‘ Com-
mercial’ and ‘Perseverance’ coaches running between
Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the mails also working
between the same places.

The settlement accounts of the Edinburgh and
Glasgow mail-coaches do not include any items for
tolls, which I cannot understand, as in Scotland the
mails were subject to tolls which amounted to
considerable sums, as the Glasgow and Carlisle mail
208 THE COACHING AGE.

 

paid in daily tolls at the gates within three different
trusts on the road, £8 48., or £2,993 yearly. I rather
think that the items in the Edinburgh and Glasgow
mail accounts, entered as ‘ paid out’ and ‘paid rent,’
must represent the tolls, especially as they form
a considerable element in the disbursements, and I
do not see to what else they can be applicable; and
moreover, the Act of Parliament under which mails
had been exempt from tolls in Scotland was repealed
in the year 1815, and thereupon an additional rate of
postage to the amount of one halfpenny was imposed
upon all letters in Scotland ; but with this regulation,
that where the letter might be a double or treble one
no more than the halfpenny was to be charged as
excess over English letters.

How far the expenses of horsing a mail or coach in
Scotland may correspond, or rather might have
corresponded (in the days when mails and coaches
ran), with those in England, I have no means of
stating ; but probably the exact locality, as in England,
made a great deal of difference, as a coach-proprietor
some distance down in the country could afford to do
it at a much lower rate than a London man. B. W.
Horne, the large coach-proprietor of the Golden Cross,
Charing Cross, and other places, said a man could
horse a coach the other side of Stamford at fifty per
cent. less than he could, because they got everything
on a cheaper scale.
COACHING BUSINESS.

200

 

‘COMMERCIAL’ AND ‘PERSEVERANCE’ CoacH SETTLEMENT FROM
JitH Marca ro 6TH APRIL, 1839, BETWEEN EDINBURGH AND

 

 

 

 

GLASGOW.
Proprietors. Receipts. Disbursements. g Shares.
£ s d, £sd)/ |£ 8. d
Mr. Piper : In this space in
C.L. £118 48 : |the original account
P, 84 26/202 7 2lare entered a num-
219 6lber of payments
by Mr. Piper for
mileage, duty, tolls,
etc., amounting al-
————_ together to - 10110 4/13) 30 11 6
205 6 8
Mr. Scott - -|- - - - -|13) 30 11 6
Mr. Kippen :
C. L. 7176
PB, 16 18
- 23:19 2) - -/15) 85 5 O
Mr. Scott -|- - - - 8} 18 16 0
Mr. Mein “|= = 8 18 16 0
Mr, Bain: Here are entered
C. L. 69 15 8 in like manner the
= a a 106 various disburse-
wiceallowed } ments made by Mr.
“eo eae Bain, including re-
pairs to lamp from
overturning of the
coach, and £17 sur-
geon’s bill from the
same cause, a fur-
ther sum of £10
being paid by some
——| 86 4 2lone else - 4019 6/17; 39 19 O
Mr. Mein : Here are Mr.
Cc. L. 42 36 Mein’s payments,
P. 47142 including anew hat,
at breaking down of
-———| 89 17 8lcoach, 23s. 6d. - 48 19 10/17) 39 19 O
Received -405 7 8 191 9 8
191 9 8|Disbursed —|}————
-————| at £2 7s. per mile 91/213 18 0
Balance * -213 18 0

 

 

 

 

 

14
210 THE COACHING AGE.

 

This does not seem to have been a very prosperous
undertaking, but possibly the overturn of the coach
may have had something to do with it, although there
is not any entry in the account referring to the acci-
dent, besides those I have mentioned. The hat, I
presume, belonged to a passenger, and judging by the
price, must have been a first-rate new beaver.
COACHING BUSINESS.

211

 

EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW MAIL SETTLEMENT, EDINBURGH
MaiL-CoacHEs FROM 6TH May To 16TH JUNE, 1838.

 

Contractors.

Received.

Disbursements.

Miles.

Shares.

 

Mr. Bain -

Walker -

Mitchell - -
Forrest -
Cowper - -
Kippen

Piper, morning

» evening -

Received -
Disbursements -

To divide

£8

. da
226 12 6

176 211

Nea
ne

RON-
ono

151 18 6

 

747 6 «1
156 6 1

 

591 0 0

 

£
Paid out 11
Office - 3
Oil - 4
Mail 0
Coach-
man’s
wages &
duty
Settling
accounts
Fraction

oe, WO
oy
No CO

 

26 89
Paid out
Office
Mail
Coach-
man’s
wages &
duty - 3 60

Oe
ION
ooo

10 19 0

 

‘Paid rent 1
Office - 3
Duty 30
Coach-
man’s
wages &
duty 250

‘Paid rent 43
Office - 3
Oil 4
Duty - 30
Coach-
man’s
duty - 0 30
; —— 81 54

 

£ s. d,

109 19 10

109 19 10
64 0 6
39 8 0
4712 2
49 5 0

170 14 8

 

156 61
At £6 11s. 4d. per mile,

 

 

90

591 0 0

 

 

14—2
212 THE COACHING AGE.

 

I don’t know whether the Scotch mails in general
paid better than the English, but the accounts of those
running between Edinburgh and Glasgow show much
better paying concerns than the Bristol, in which,
as will be seen by the foregoing account, the pro-
prietors only shared £4 14s. a mile, while the Scotch
proprietors divided at the rate of £6 11s. 4d.; but
the great traffic between Edinburgh and Glasgow most
likely filled the mails every day both ways.

I do not think that the London and Glasgow,
London and Edinburgh, or any of the English mails
did so well; several I know did not pay half as
much, and their earnings were obliged to be
supplemented by an extra allowance from the
Postmaster-General in order to get the proprietors
along the roads to continue working them.
CHAPTER XI.
THE NEW COACH AT ST. STEPHENS.

GENERALLY coaches are put upon the road by gentle-
men who undertake them simply from their fondness
for anything connected with horses and driving ; and
they join as partners without the slightest regard to,
or perhaps knowledge of, each other’s political
opinions.

In the year 1880, in the month of May, when the
coaching season generally commences, it seems that
the taste for coaching had found its way even into the
ranks of politicians, and that two concerns were
started to run against each other, one being worked
by the Government, and the other by the Opposi-
tion.

What the result of the schemes has been since they
were set on foot in 1880, the public have had ample
opportunities of judging for themselves by what they
may have read in the daily papers.

There was a good deal of trouble upon the North-
ampton road, and presumably some strong language
214 THE COACHING AGE.

 

must have been used, as there was much discussion,
and very strong objections were made respecting
some one connected with that place taking an oath
and swearing.

The Opposition has not, of course, been a very
paying concern, as ever since the ‘ Midlothian’ has
been on the road they have not been receiving any
allowance or mileage from the Government. All
their supporters have been outsiders, while the other
concern carries all the znsiders, and although the
Opposition have made some attempts to upset their
rivals, or run them off the road, they have hitherto
been unsuccessful.

The following is an account which appeared in the

year before referred to, under the title of ‘The New
Coach at St. Stephen’s:’
. ‘It is now no longer a matter of doubt that a new
coach is to be put on the road for this season at least,
and if carried on successfully, as appears most pro-
bably will be the case, it will be taken off the
road early in August and not run during the depth
of the winter, but will be put on again in February.

‘It is to be called the ‘ Midlothian,” and according
to present arrangements will commence running
regularly about the 20th of May, it having been
found impossible to get the whole concern into
working order, and all the teams arranged in their
THE NEW COACH AT ST. STEPHEN’S. 215

 

places before that time, when it is hoped by the
professional that he will be able to hold them all well
together—a point on which it is rumoured he antici-
pates little difficulty, and, indeed, I hear he looks
forward to its being quite a Bright concern.

‘Merry Pebbles” is the professional who has started
it, and he has worked hard for some months in
getting together his stock, having selected them from
England, Ireland, and Scotland, and spared no
trouble or exertion in the undertaking, having even
been so energetic as to stump several parts of England
and Scotland for the purpose.

‘Several, however, that he had selected, and that it
was expected would have been worked in the concern,
were found to be unavailable, as after the most
vigorous efforts, and much expense and time, they
could not be got up to the poll, and were not fit to
put in as leaders.

‘The upshot, however, of the almost herculean
labours of the professional was that he succeeded in
getting together an extensive stock, so numerous
that he has been unable to find places to put them all
into.

‘The professional is a person of great experience,
and has had the management of several undertakings
before, but about the year 1875 he was unable to hold
his team together, and was driven off the road by
216 THE COACHING AGE,

 

the “Conservative,” which was then the Opposition,
and has been kept on the road through Beaconsfield
ever since.

‘The difficulty of starting this new coach has been
considerable, one or two other professionals having
been employed in the first instance to make all the
preliminary arrangements, it having been understood
that Merry Pebbles had cut his stick, and expressed
his intention not to go on the road again.

‘It appearing, however, that the coach could not be
started without him, his advice and assistance were
urgently solicited, and eventually he was induced to
resume his old position and take the reins in hand
again. Accordingly he set to work, and having got
some of his teams together, put them into their
places, and worked them down on a trial trip to
Windsor. They were taken down there by train,
when it was found there was no coach ready to put
them into, and they had to be walked from the
station.

‘There have been several interviews and meetings
submitting them for approval, and it is understood
that the teams are approved, and the several places in
which they are to work definitely settled. Having
been selected with great care and judgment, and
many of them having been in harness and done
a good deal of hard work before, it is not anticipated
THE NEW COACH AT ST. STEPHEN'S. 217

 

that any of them will turn out very unruly, or kick
over the traces, still less that they will jib or refuse
to collar their work; in fact, if any danger is to be
apprehended, it will be from their bolting, some
of them being in harness for their first season,
and being inclined to go very much ahead, more so,
indeed, than any that have been put into work before.
Being, however, so much overstocked, the professional
will be able to get rid of any unmanageable member
in his teams, and select quieter ones from his
reserve.

‘In order to provide for the event of illness of the
professional, or to help him in keeping the concern on
the road, he will be assisted by one or two professional
whips, whom he will expect to be ready at all times
to whip up any of the stock that may be hanging
back or not coming well up to their work when
wanted.

‘To make each one in a team do his equal share
of the work has ever been a difficulty with the best of
coachmen, so one can easily appreciate the labour the
new professional will have to undergo in schooling
several new and untried ones.

‘There was some apprehension that the stock from
Ireland, numbering thirty or more, might turn out
sufficiently awkward to upset the coach, or, in the
event of their being discarded, might be taken up to
218 THE COACHING AGE.

 

work in the Opposition ; but there being a sufficient
majority of the English stock to dispense with the
Irish altogether, this has ceased to cause any alarm or
anxiety, and it is not expected that there will be any
serious obstruction to the working of the coach.

‘To get all the teams of a coach into harness and in
their places is an undertaking requiring much time
and patience, and there will be a good deal of
swearing in getting all the stock of this coach into
their places; but to prevent any disorderly conduct or
any irregularities on the road after it has started,
a person has been agreed upon by both the proprietors
of this and the Opposition to speak if he finds it
requisite at any time to stop such improprieties, and
it will therefore be the duty of the speaker to put
down any attempts there may be to cause obstructions
such as occurred on more than one occasion last
season, when the coach was so hindered and harassed
by the Opposition that it was kept at work all
night.

‘In order to be prepared for any contingencies that
might arise, on all the teams being first brought
together, an official was present with, not exactly “a
short Tommy,” but a blackthorn stick, or black rod, or
something of that description ; but there was not any
occasion to make use of it, though some of the unruly
Trish ones may require hitting below the bar if they
THE NEW COACH AT ST. STEPHEN'S. 219

 

get up to any of their tricks to interfere vexatiously
with the regular working of the “ Midlothian.” It
appears to be necessary that some, if not all, of the
stock which has been fixed on to work the coach
should be sent back to the country to the places from
whence they came, and accordingly one sent up from
Oxford has to go back there, and be again approved
by the people who sent him up; but there seems to
be a difference of opinion among the Oxford people,
and as, according to the old adage, “All is not gold
that glitters,” so ver non semper viret, and it is
rumoured that they will not return the teamster
again, but keep him out of the coach if they can.

‘ As usual, there will be an Opposition coach run this
season, but they do not expect it will pay, as the
public will now support and patronize the “ Midlo-
thian,” the proprietors of which have been out in the
cold and working the Opposition for the last five
years without any remuneration, and are now greatly
elated at the prospect of a successful season. The
professional has for some time past been undergoing
an immense amount of fatigue, both bodily and
mental, but it does not appear to have injuriously
affected his brain, and, indeed, it is said that he
suffers less from dizziness than he has done for the
last five years.

‘The coaching bills have not yet been issued, but
220 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the route will be rendered as attractive as possible,
no doubt, as the professional stated recently that he
had no less than thirty-one subjects to embody in
them ; how far they may interest the general public,
or those reading them, is another thing; they may,
perhaps, be treated with indifference, or be comprised
in the murder of the innocents.

‘Who is to be guard on the coach seems to be
at present undecided, but most likely some one will
be wanted to put the drag on, unless the professional
does it himself. As regards the blowing the horn
there will be no difficulty about that, as there are
plenty in the concern capable of performing the
task.

‘Just a word or two about the Opposition coach
before concluding. It will be worked on the upper
ground by two men of experience on the Salisbury
and Beaconsfield roads, while the lower will be
managed by one who has always worked harmoniously
with his chiefs, and is not likely to cut up rough
with them, though he may be found rather cross with
his opponents. The Opposition coach is what has
been running under the name of the “ Conservative,”
but is now off the road, or rather running as the same
concern under different auspices.

‘Their leaders have always worked well, and their
teams have been properly put together, coupled up,
THE NEW COACH AT ST. STEPHEN'S. 221

 

and held in hand. Should the summer prove a dry
one, as no doubt it will, to the Opposition, so far
at least as regards the remunerative working of it,
they can easily refresh themselves by resorting to
Coope, while the “ Midlothian ” can draw upon Bass.

‘It is not expected that there will be a great amount
of work done by either coach, but there will no doubt
be some galloping towards the end of the season.

‘As work will be resumed again in February, the
stock will not be changed or sent to the hammer,
according to the usual practice. They will most
likely be turned loose, but it will not be necessary
that they should “go to the country again,” as the
phrase runs: It is said that Government provides the
oil for the wheels of the “ Midlothian,” and keeping all
this coach in working order, but the Opposition have
to find their own grease.

‘Finally, it is believed that when it comes to thé
“sharing,” the “ Midlothian” will turn out to be the
best paying coach on the road this season. - With
them it is no pikes, no nothing to pay—teams and
their stabling (or residences) provided by the country
in and about Whitehall.

‘N.B.—At the end of the season a whitebait dinner
at Greenwich is generally given to all those connected
with the coach, although the professional discontinued
it some years since.’
CHAPTER XII.

HORSE SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS.

In the days of the road there were not so many horse
repositories as now, to which you could resort, and in
the course of a week pick up, without difficulty, a
large number of horses suitable for coach and. post-
master’s business. Those persons who kept horses,
and resided anywhere in the vicinity of one of the
main roads, could generally, if having an animal to
dispose of, find a purchaser in one of the coach-
proprietors, whose principal if not only require-
ment was that it should be able to go. It might be
one that would rear up, lie down, kick, jib, or bolt,
any of which little eccentricities would be overcome
after a few days or nights of work in the coach ; and
a horse gifted with any of these peculiarities would
naturally be bought at a low figure. Coach-horses
were bought pretty much as they were sold when
a coach was taken off the road, when they were sold
by auction, the only description in the catalogue
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 223

being the colour, and whether horse or mare, as
‘a brown horse,’ ‘a chestnut mare,’ ete.

All the numerous and glowing descriptions to
be found in the newspapers at this time of horses for
sale by private contract would have been thrown
away entirely upon the coach-proprietor, as in the
first place he would be too good a judge, and too
much accustomed to have a great number of horses
constantly passing through his hands, to be in any
way influenced by them; and secondly, if the
descriptions were true to the letter, the animal would
be parted with only at too high a figure to suit
the coach-proprietor.

From what I have heard there is frequently a great
mystery about horses advertised to be sold privately
somewhere down in an obscure mews, the intending
purchaser having to wait while the coachman is
fetched from the ‘ public’ round the corner.

As an instance of the mode in which persons having
a horse of dubious character to dispose of would
resort to some coach-proprietor in the hope of his
becoming a purchaser, I give the following, related
by a man who was himself a coach-proprietor, as well
as a coachman on the Oxford road. He says:

‘My employer, knowing that Oxford was a place
where harness-horses were sometimes to be picked up
on more reasonable terms than in London, had com-
224 THE COACHING AGE.

 

missioned.me to look out, and, as occasion might offer,
purchase some for him. This I had done to his
satisfaction.

‘One afternoon a tout, or man who was a sort of
horse-dealer’s cad, came and told me, as a great
favour, of a horse that was to be disposed of for a
little money. I went with him, and was shown a
very useful sort of coach-horse.' I asked to see him
out. This was complied with, and running my eye
over him, and approving his action, I said:

‘“ Sound ?” ,

‘“ Perfectly ; but I don’t warrant him.”

Age 2”

‘« Six years old.”

‘Looking in his mouth I found this to be correct.

‘“ Price 2?” T said.

«“Ten pounds,” was the reply.

‘IT immediately concluded something was wrong, as
he looked like a five-and-thirty-pound horse.

‘“ He’s not a kicker?” I said.

‘“ You can’t make him kick,” was the reply.

‘T was almost ashamed to say, ‘“‘ You don’t warrant
him quiet, I suppose ?”

‘« You can’t expect it at that price; but all I have
told you is true.”

«« Then I'll have him,” I said.

‘I observed a smile on the lips of the stableman as
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 225

 

I followed him into the house to give him the money,
when the seller candidly told me he had given thirty
pounds for the horse, and had sold him two or three
times for more money; but he had always been re-
turned, as he would not go in harness. Not very
well satisfied with my bargain, I walked away,
desiring him to send the horse round to the Roe-
buck.

‘Early next morning I borrowed a break, harnessed
him, and put him to with another horse ; but he would
not move, and when touched with the whip he reared
right on end, then threw himself down, and there he
lay. At this I thought it was a bad case, when
my friend, who had kindly put me up to this great.
bargain, called to me, and said :

‘Master, master! light a truss of straw and put
under him !”

‘Nothing loth to make trial of such a remedy,
which I had heard of before, though I had never seen
it practised, and there being few people about, for it
was early in the morning, we unbuckled his traces,
got him out, and with the other horse drew the
break into the corn-market, and put him to again,
for I was not to be beaten without a further trial.
My friend then procured me a wisp of straw, and
strewed it on the ground under the horse, and when I
was ready set fire to it. The animal made two or

15
226 THE COACHING AGE.

 

three plunges clear of the straw, and then threw him-
self down.

‘Satisfied now that he might be made to go, though
not by such means, I thought I would try another
element, which I had before seen applied with suc-
cess. After getting him up I had him taken to
the canal, where I found a barge just going to start
with two horses. Giving the bargeman half-a-crown
to lend me some draught-harness, with his permission
we put my horse in behind the other two, first taking
the precaution to have the barge moored off the quay
and clear of other craft. We then moved on, when
the brute threw himself about, first up in the air,
then down on his knees; up again, then forward,
then back on his haunches. But the two fore-horses
went on, and, their traces acting upon the barge, did
not give him time to lie down; and after two or three
attempts to baffle us, he rolled off the towing-path
into the canal.

‘Here, after two or three plunges, and being im-
mersed in water, the tackle holding good, he regained
his feet and the towing-path at the same time; and
the other two horses keeping their places and their
pace, and the barge being in motion, there was nothing
left for him but to keep quietly on or put up with
another ducking. He chose the former, walked up to
his collar, and took his share of draught for about two
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 227

 

miles without the least attempt at jibbing. We then
took him out and returned to the Roebuck. The
coach arriving in about half an hour, I put him in
off-wheel, and drove him to Benson, a distance of
twelve miles, our first stage, and no horse ever went
better or more quietly.

‘The next day I drove him back, and the report of
this singular feat having spread through the city,
all the stable fraternity of Oxford assembled to greet
my return, and to assure themselves of the identity
of the animal ; for it appeared that he had been tried
by many of Mr. Costar’s men, who had all pro-
nounced him incurable, and he had been returned
accordingly, as the man from whom I bought him
had told me. I continued to drive him as long as
the coach lasted, and it fell to my lot a year or two
later to renew my acquaintance with him in another
team from the same establishment.’

This is his account of the renewal of the acquaint-
ance, on which occasion there was nearly being a
serious accident, in no way, however, attributable to
the particular horse mentioned before :

‘My first journey to London was attended with
rather an inauspicious event. I did not know a yard
of the road for the first two stages before the day I
took possession of the box of the Lynn coach, but had
no difficulty in finding my way, as, with the exception

15—2
‘228 THE COACHING AGE.

 

of diverging from the Royston Road, rather more
than four miles from Cambridge, I could not possibly
make a mistake, and in taking the right road the
horses themselves would, I knew, be sufficient guides.
Arrived at the inn which my predecessor had used, I
pulled up ; and he informed me that he should resume
his seat in a day or two, but gave no reason for his
strange conduct, or for his leaving without saying
anything to his employer. This, of course, did not
tend to put me on very good terms with myself.
‘After. changing for the last ‘time at Waltham
Cross it became dark, and I forgot, if I had. ever
known, the double gate at Kingsland ; and the glare of
the lamps not permitting me to see that the farther
one was closed, my leaders ran against, it, and the
force of the concussion knocked them on their
haunches, and very much discomposed my nerves.
The confusion was great, one of the bars being broken,
and the leaders partly under the wheel-horses.’ I
got down, and, having plenty of assistance,. soon
liberated the team, replaced the broken bar with a
spare one we always carried, and being pretty well up
in knotting and splicing, made the reins right. ~No
further mischief having been done, I proceeded on the
journey, but had the greatest difficulty in piloting the
team—one of which, a wheel-horse, I recognised as
the animal I’ had cured of his evil propensities at
HORSE-SELLING, ADVERTISEMENTS. 229

 

Oxford by my knowledge of hydropathics—through
the city, one pulling, another rearing, and all from
their excited state being nearly unmanageable. How-
ever, at last, much to my relief, I landed them safe
in the Golden Cross yard; and those who recollect
that yard before it was purchased by Government
and pulled down, will understand that this could
have been no very easy task.’

Of course, to coach-proprietors working over the
middle-ground, if they had no stoppages at their
houses for the passengers’ meals, but merely their
share of the earnings to depend on as the profit
arising from their undertaking, economy in the pur-
chase of horses was a most important matter —a
good appearance being considered unnecessary for
horses which were never seen at work by daylight,
as with the mails and night-coaches on certain parts
of their journeys. Thus a horse that would be quite up
to the mark over a stage in the Bristol or Gloucester
mail, would not do to show in the ‘ York House,’
the swell day-coach from Bath, or the ‘Berkeley
Hunt,’ filling a similar position on the Cheltenham
road.

So totally different were the day and night horses,
that I have fancied sometimes when describing the
latter to men who had never seen them, they thought
my descriptions were ‘travellers’ tales’ very much
230 THE COACHING AGE.

 

exaggerated, and that such animals never could have
existed in fact.

Occasionally there might be an opportunity of
somewhat diversifying the monotonous work of the
coachmen and guards who travelled night after night
for a great part of the year in the dark, especially
with the mails, which were supposed to stop only for
the time set out in the Post-Office time-bills—and
except where they might be obliged to wait a few
minutes for Post-Office business, it was change, up
and off again. Coming up on Saturday night from
the country, arriving at the General Post Office’ in
London on Sunday morning, when there was no
delivery of letters, the mails were not bound strictly
to the time, as there was no object in having the
letter-bags arrive at the Post Office punctually ; hence
it might happen that a mail or two fell in with some
of the coaches, when of course it was considered in-
dispensable that the officials should have something
at one of the little roadside public-houses, which
were kept open all night, or opened very early in the
morning, for the particular coaches which either
changed or just pulled up there.

By way of a little diversion one night, a mail on
the up journey on the North road changed at the
inn kept by one of the proprietors, who slept in a
room facing the street, and nearly over the entrance
 

 

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HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 231

 

to the inn-yard, the doors of which were closed. The
proprietor, who had gone to bed, and was asleep long
before the mail arrived, was not, for some reason or
other, a particular favourite with the coachman, to
whom a plan occurred for having a little fun for
himself, the guard, and horsekeeper, at the proprietor’s
expense.

It happened that in the fresh team to be put to,
was a grey mare who was an inveterate kicker upon
the slightest provocation. The accomplishment, I
believe, she had acquired under the teaching of some
men who had been in the habit of mounting her bare
backed, and, when up, scratching her back with a
curry-comb. Thus tutored, it is not to be wondered
at that the mare soon became entitled to the character
I have given her.

So, in order to turn her talent to account, and at
the same time have their amusement, either the
coachman or guard backed the mare sharply up
against the closed doors, when she rattled off a
continuous volley of kicks. This unusual noise in
the dead silence of the night woke up the landlord,
who immediately rushed out of bed, and throwing
up the window, put out his head to ascertain the
cause of all the row. To do this did not take long,
as he looked down on the mare, who continued her
performance.
232 THE COACHING AGE.

 

He at once called on the three spectators, who
were enjoying their joke, to get the mare away from
the gates; but they professed their unwillingness to
go near her, for fear of the consequences. At length,
however, she was got away from the doors and put
into the mail, and the journey was resumed. The
little time, if any,,lost by the performance would
be made up in some way over the different stages ;
or in the event of this being impracticable, the
guard would have the means of accounting for it on
his time-bill, by ascribing it to improper horses being
employed, which would at once cause some commu-
nication between the Post-Office Inspector and the
proprietor, in all probability somewhat to the annoy-
ance and trouble of the latter.

The advertisements of Mr. George Robbins, a noted
auctioneer of large estates many years since, used to
be productions of the most flowery character, con-
taining glowing and enchanting descriptions of the
properties to be disposed of. They were such as are
not to be met with in the advertisements of the most
zealous auctioneers of the present day.

There are, however, to be found in the current
announcements of things to be sold, descriptions
perhaps more curious than accurate, as appears by
extracts I have made from various papers.

In the equine department, for instance, it would
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 233

 

seem that almost everyone wishing to dispose of a
horse considers it necessary, not only to describe all
particulars connected with the animal in question,
but also to give a satisfactory reason for wishing to
part with it—which one might suppose quite imma-
terial to the purchaser, whose only object is to be
satisfied that it.is what he requires, and worth the
money asked for it.

I find in advertisements for the sale of horses, in
nearly every case they are stated to be ‘the property
of a gentleman,’ which would lead one to suppose
that this adds considerably to their value, although
T believe, as a fact, many gentlemen find themselves
in possession of horses which are anything but what
they expected, and consequently are glad to get rid
of at almost any price; while some persons assume
the title of gentlemen, although their dealings in
horses scarcely warrant the assumption.

Another frequent and favourite statement, after
enumerating all the virtues and good qualities that
can well be combined in one horse, is that he ‘is
parted with for no fault,’ which sounds rather
suspicious, and would seem to be superfluous.

I find some descriptions dubious and obscure as
regards the animal to be disposed of, and rather
more descriptive of the owner; for instance, ‘a
perfect’ Jady’s hunter’ may belong to a perfect
234 THE COACHING AGE.

 

lady, but be the most vicious or useless brute
living ; whilst ‘For sale, dark chesnut mare, hunted
by a lady very fast, is quite open to presumption
that the fast lady hunted the chesnut mare round
a field; and indeed I find two or three horses
advertised as ‘having been hunted by a lady.’ So
that the ladies seem to hunt the horses, an amuse-
ment, by-the-bye, which does not appear to be con-
fined to the female sex, as a gentleman advertises
some horses which ‘have been hunted by the master
and servants.’

A very sagacious animal is to be disposed of,
showing his good taste and preference for ladies, as
he is ‘A bay horse exceptionally clever, and would
carry a lady; from which I infer that he was of
a very resolute temper, and presumably would not
carry a gentleman. As the opposite to the fast
lady’s horse, there is one described as ‘ A good lady’s
horse ;’ the announcement, curiously enough, being
silent as to the character of the animal itself.

Singular are the announcements of ponies required
for the juvenile members of the community, and the
descriptions of animals offered for them; there is
‘A perfect child’s pony ’—‘ A handsome child’s pony
for sale; but there is no mention of whether the
‘handsome’ or ‘perfect’ child is a boy or a girl,
while the pony may be such as is seen carrying on
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 235

 

its back the hooped sticks and blankets forming a
gipsy’s tent. ‘A capital boy’s hunter’ and ‘ A good
boy’s hunter’ may belong to boys who have’ been
singularly exemplary at school, although, in my own
opinion and experience, the ‘good boy, as he is
often called,‘is not a very taking or lovable in-
dividual. What sort of animal the next one is I
think, from the description, it is impossible to tell :
‘A pony—would make a capital boy’s hunter.’ Who
is the ‘capital boy’ thus frequently described I
should much. like to know, and what it is that
entitles him to the character conferred upon him.

I had almost forgotten to mention two most compli-
mentary notices respecting ladies who seem to surpass
both the ‘very fast’ lady and the ‘ good lady,’ as
there is ‘ For sale, a perfect lady’s hack,’ and ‘ Very
superior ladies’ hunters ;’ but excelling even these are
‘Two first-class ladies’ hacks.’ What a rare collection
it would make for a caravan at a fair, if all these persons
could be exhibited! Fancy the showman at the top
of the stairs leading into the caravan, after the gong
had sounded, shouting out, ‘ Walk inside, ladies and
gentlemen, and see “ the fast lady,” “ the good lady,”
“the perfect lady,’ “the handsome child,” “the
capital boy,” “ the very superior lady,” and “ the two
first-class ladies”! All for the small charge of one
penny! If these would not draw, the next
236 THE COACHING AGE.

 

announcement, which beats all the others hollow,
could not possibly fail—‘ Required a perfect pony for
little girl 13.2 in height; about seven years old.’
I do not feel equal to commenting on this extra-
ordinary child, having never seen or heard of anything
like her. ‘

The reasons which owners assign for parting with
their horses are numerous and curious, as will be seen
from those which follow ; but perhaps about the most
candid’ and unanswerable is, ‘Lady’s horse for sale,
cheap, as the owner is unable to ride; ‘ the property
of a gentleman who is retiring to—,’ ‘who is giving
up hunting,’ ‘the owner going abroad,’ ‘who is not
going to hunt next season,’ ‘who is breaking up his
establishment,’ ‘owing to the death of the owner,’
‘who is unable to hunt next season,’ etc., etc., quos
nune prescribere longum est. Why it is necessary
that the purchasers should be made acquainted in all
these instances with the sellers’ affairs I do not, as l
have before observed, understand ; but it seems to be
the correct thing to do, judging from the numerous
instances in which it occurs.

One person has ‘Two horses, both movers in
harness,’ to dispose of. I suppose they would not be
much use in harness if they didn’t move ; but the rate
at which they will move is cleverly omitted. Another
person has for disposal: ‘A dark-brown nobleman’s
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 237

 

riding cob;’ but he does not say whether the noble-
man is a mulatto or half-caste, or what advantage is
to be derived from purchasing a cob belonging to ‘a
dark-brown nobleman.’

Singularity in advertisements does not seem to
be confined to those who buy or sell horses, as a _
man advertises for a place ‘As valet; understands
hunting and shooting things,’ but does not specify
what things; it may be hunting rats or shooting
stars.

For those wishing to get out of town during
the summer, there are ‘ Rooms to let, at a prettily
situated gentleman’s residence; but it does not
mention where the gentleman is ‘ prettily situated.’
Mr. Pickwick was prettily situated when discovered
with Mrs. Bardell in his arms.

In the present period of agricultural depression, it
may be useful to farmers giving up their farms, to
learn that there is a ‘Farm wanted with a small
gentleman’s house ;’ but the size of the ‘ small gentle-
man’ is not mentioned, or his name, so that it may
be General Tom Thumb or Commodore Nutt.
Neither does the reason for stating that the gentle-
man is small appear ; perhaps it has some reference
to the rent he intends to pay.

One would suppose that in travelling by a steamer,
all passengers paying the same fare would be entitled
238 THE COACHING AGE.

 

to equal privileges and advantages, like railway
passengers, and that no distinction would be made
between ladies who are handsome and those who
unfortunately may be the reverse. This, however,
is not the case, as the advertisement of the Calais-
Douvres steamer announces that there are ‘ Handsome
ladies’ cabins ;’ but no mention is made of any cabins
being provided for the poor ladies who may not.
happen to be handsome.

I gather from the various advertisements I have
collected, that a study of Lindley Murray might
probably conduce to a more lucid expression of the
advertisers’ meanings; and those respecting horses
seem not to have put the horse before the cart, but
rather to have put the owner before the horse, and
described the former instead of the latter.

To these remarks on purchasing horses by adver-
tisement I would add a few words respecting : private
purchase.

I heard it said many years since, but where, or by
whom, I cannot now remember, that there were three
things a man should never lend—his wife, his horse,
or his razor.

To anyone contemplating any such loan, I would
say, in the words of Punch to persons about to
marry—‘ Don’t.’ The same advice, I think, would
also be applicable to anyone about to purchase a
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS. 239

 

horse from a friend. The reason why I think so I
will now state.

A. having several horses, all well driven or ridden,
sufficiently worked to preclude any probability of
their kicking over the traces, always properly
harnessed, put to in suitable carriages, and not over-
fed, does not meet with any accidents, or find his
horses exhibit any ebullitions of temper consequent
upon a want of proper management.

B., his friend, being in want of a horse for harness-
work, but understanding little about horses, deputes
his groom to negotiate as to the purchase of one from
A., which, after some two or three little talks on the
subject between the grooms of both gentlemen, and
an interview between the latter, is effected ; A. dealing
fairly and candidly as with a gentleman.

Upon such occasions the grooms invariably, I
believe, look for a gratuity from the purchaser and
seller crosswise. I will suppose that A. gives B.’s
servant a liberal douceur, and now let us see what the
effect is. The horse turns out, say, satisfactorily in
every respect, and having gone on very well, the pur-
chaser’s servant begins to think that, as he got such
a good thing out of the purchase, it is about time
that he should renew the process, and he sets his wits
to work as to the mode of accomplishing his
object. To suggest any objection to the horse is an
240 THE COACHING AGE.

 

awkward matter, but it may be done in this way,
perhaps :

‘This horse is too good for our work, and if we
keep him, some day we may have an accident with
him; it is as much as I can do to hold him some-
times, when I am out with the carriage, driving
the missus and the children. He can be sold now as
quiet in harness, and without fault; but if kept till he
runs away, or kicks the carriage to pieces, he will sell
for next to nothing. Mr. A., Iknow, has a nice little
horse now, just suited to our work; and his price is
not high—I chanced to hear from his groom the
other day what it would be.’

Upon this B. calls on his friend, expressing his satis-
faction in every respect as to his horse and the
previous deal ; mentions that he understands from his
groom that he has another horse for sale, which will
be better adapted to his requirements, and accordingly
purchases No. 2.

On this occasion, suppose A. does not come down
with a liberal douceur as on the previous one, much
to the disappointment of B.’s groom, who has,
however, probably got something from a purchaser
of his master’s horse. Being annoyed at what: he
considers want of gentlemanlike conduct, and dis-
appointed of his anticipated benefit from the trans-
action, B.’s groom looks upon A. as a person from
HORSE-SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS, 241

 

whom nothing more can be got in future, and hence
determines to look about for some other source
whence he can get money from a change of his
master’s horse.

The course adopted will probably be this. After a
time has elapsed, sufficiently long not to raise suspi-
cion, some fault is discovered in horse No. 2: either
‘He went a little lame when he was out in the carriage
the other day, and I understand the veterinary
surgeon, who knows all about him, told some one that
he had fever in the feet, and was constantly lame; or,
‘ Several times when I have been driving to the station
to meet you or missus’ (the carriage of course was
always empty), ‘he has shied and very nearly had me
into the ditch. I’m almost afraid to drive him ;’ or, ‘He
is a very delicate horse; there is always something
the matter with him, and we shall be obliged to have
the vet. to him before long. I don’t think he'll ever
be well long together ; perhaps we'd better get rid of
him before he gets worse.’ And by way of preventing
his master from resorting to his friend Mr. A. for
another horse, the groom hints that the state of his
constitution must have been known to that gentle-
man, which was the reason, no doubt, of his letting
his master have him at such a low figure. The fact
probably being that A. had sold the horse at a low
figure because he was dealing with his friend.

16
242 THE COACHING AGE.

 

The horse is consequently disposed of to somebody,
poor B. not for a moment suspecting that the objec-
tions raised by his groom were entirely fabricated
on his part, in order to have another fee from the
purchaser, to whom he does not fail to laud the
horse up to the skies in the most candid manner,
giving his true character, which thus secures a liberal
douceur again.

B., however, feeling somewhat chagrined at what
he supposes to be an advantage taken by A. of his
want of equine knowledge, gently discloses part of
the information received from his groom, suppressing,
however, the hint that A. must have known of the
state of the horse’s constitution.

A feeling of annoyance is caused on both sides,
with a mutual tacit resolution not to have any
further dealing; and B. carries out this resolution
by procuring another horse without resorting to his
friend. This further increases the coolness between
them, and they cease to be on the former good terms.

That such occurrences are by no means unfrequent,
I am perfectly well aware ; and this fact will, I think,
sufficiently show the prudence of the advice with
which I set out—‘ Don’t.’
CHAPTER XIII.

THE POST OFFICE.

THE procession of mail-coaches was to be seen only
once a year; but the nearest approach to it was
-the departure of the mails from the General Post
Office, St. Martin’s le Grand, every night (except
Sunday) at eight o’clock. The coaches leaving
London nightly never exceeded twenty-eight, but
had gradually risen to that number as additiongl
mails had from time to time-been put on the various
roads, either at the suggestion of coach-proprietors
who thought a fresh one could be successfully worked,
or by the direction of the Postmaster-General, who
had found that the proposed road comprised places
insufficiently provided with postal accommodation,
or who might have been memorialized by the inhabi-
tants to put a mail-coach on the road.

It having been decided to start one, the course
then adopted was for a Post-Office official—either a-
superintendent and surveyor of mail-coaches or an
inspector-—to go down the road, putting himself in

16—2
244 THE COACHING AGE.

 

communication with the coach-proprietors on it, to
ascertain whether they were disposed to join in
horsing it. If it was to run out of London, a meeting
of the proprietors might be held there with some
London proprietors having influence or business con-
nections along the proposed road, and thus probably
able to bring custom to the new concern. If a large
London coach-proprietor could be got at one end, and
the principal one in the town at the other end, there
would not be much difficulty in their finding middle-
ground men to undertake that part, and they would be
more likely to accomplish this easily than the Post-
Office official, who did not find it all smooth work
when trying to establish a new mail, as appeared from
a report made by Mr. Akers, for forty years one of
the six inspectors of mail-coaches ; he said:

‘After this long experience I found latterly in-
creased difficulty in obtaining contracts for the mails,
in fact so much so that men would form all sorts of
excuses rather than come to the point; they would
say: “I will see you again in half an hour,” and
would perhaps go off to the next market town. . . .
I have been down to Cambridge last week, and called
on three men there. One said: “I will see you again
in an hour’s time.” I replied, “I wish to be off in an
hour’s time. I cannot finish this contract in a month
if I go on so. I have to account for my time.”
‘THE POST OFFICE. 245

 

“Then I will see you again in half an hour.” I went
back to the inn, for I had a person to see there.
He said: “I will tell you what, Mr. Akers, it is not
any use humbugging you ”—that was the very term
he used—‘ we do not mean to sign any contract
at all.” I thanked him for his candid answer, and
went and called on the other person, and he said he
had not quite made up his mind as to distance. If
Mr. Hall of Ely did not choose to give him a quarter
of a mile in the earnings more than the distance, he
could not think of joining. They put us off in that
way.’

Such is a sample of the obstacles Mr. Akers used
to meet with in the course of his official duties.

The proprietors’ objection to sign any contract
might have arisen from the formidable appearance of
one of the contract forms in use by the Postmaster-
General, if they had chanced to see one.

They were printed on strong sheets of paper, no
less than a yard long—or to be accurate to an inch,
two feet nine inches long, by one foot ten inches
broad ; and being all exactly the same, when required
for use the Post-Office official had merely to fillin the
places between which the mail ran, and the rate of
payment. All the other particulars were specified in
the time-bills which were annexed, and were in the
form set out elsewhere.
246 THE COACHING AGE,

 

Mr. Akers evidently did not ascribe the proprietors’
objection to sign a contract to its appearance, as when
asked how he accounted for the increased difficulty of
obtaining contractors in later years, he said :

‘T think the competition is greater, from the number
of persons who are working different coaches, and
that therefore they do not find it worth their while.
For instance, many of the middle proprietors are
drivers who cannot conveniently belong to a mail-
coach, as there are strong objections to them. If a
man works one side of the coach, if he finds five
horses, that gives him a situation. A number of
those little proprietors cover a great scope of country,
and I know Mr. Chaplin of Lad Lane has many of *
those subworkers who are driving the post-coaches,
and they are getting into that with the mails where
they can; but the office is not fond of it—it is an
incorrect way.’

Mr. Akers sometimes found the proprietors as
troublesome to manage as getting an unwilling horse
up to the pole. ‘Even when we go down to get the
contract executed by those persons, the thing having
been pretty well understood by many of them before,
when we come to the point they hesitate and evade
it.’ In fact, like many of the horses which they
worked in their coaches, they jibbed.

They say: ‘This mail-coach can only carry four
THE POST OFFICE. 247

 

inside and three out ; if the coach is to travel two or
three days in the week with only two, it reduces
the earnings so that they are not worth our notice.
Besides, the hours in the mail-coach business are
generally very awkward; the coaches leave London
in the evening, and the same returning. The hundred
miles from London is sure to be night-work during
the winter. Or: ‘If we had an opportunity. of
carrying one more, what a help it would be to us, if
only for two or three days a week

On the other hand, there was the difficulty of the
extra luggage of the additional passenger to be met,.
there being little room under any circumstances for
passengers’ luggage on the mails. The guard mono-
polized the whole of the hind-boot for his letter-bags,
and also put some large sacks up on the top when
the boot was not large enough to take all his Post-
Office packages. A considerable part of the front-
boot was wanted by the coachman for his parcels,
which, although not very large, from the number.
of them necessarily occupied a good deal of room ;
thus the available space for a small portmanteau only
for each passenger was pretty well absorbed, and it
frequently happened when the mails were being loaded
in the General Post-Office yard at St. Martin's le
Grand, with only the luggage of the four inside and
three outside passengers, they had a good deal of
248 THE COACHING AGE.

 

trouble ; the passengers had to be told they must take
off their heavy things, and must be contented to go
with something less. And when a gentleman’s lug-
gage was taken off, ‘many severe observations,” as
I have before stated, were made; and the proprietors
being allowed to carry an additional passenger would
no doubt have added very much both to the number
and’ strength of the severe observations. It would
also have been necessary to alter the roof-seat of the
mail, so as to make room for another person.

As the mails filed off out of the Post-Office yard
at night, judging from the height of the load on
the roof it certainly did not seem that any addition
could with safety be made to it.

How different a state of things is this from that
mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, who said a friend of
his remembered the letter-bag arriving in Edinburgh
during the year 1745 with but one letter in it, and
about the same time the same mail arrived in London
with but one letter. The mode of conveying the
letters at that time must have been by horse-post, as
the first mail-coach from London to Bristol was not
started until 1784.

As the mails became established on the principal
main roads out of London, and from a variety of other
circumstances, correspondence and newspapers very
much increased; and thus in nearly a century after
THE POST OFFICE. 249

 

the time mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, there was
such an accumulation of both letters and papers on
Saturday and Monday nights, that the Post Office
found it extremely difficult to get the Edinburgh mail
off at the proper time, and was obliged to take
two outside passengers off it for the purpose of
devoting the whole roof to the carrying of the bags,
and also to pay the proprietors for two places to York
every Saturday night. While in order to relieve the
Holyhead mail, which in like manner was too
heavily loaded on those nights, part .of the Post-
Office packages—a very large sack—was sent on
early in the evening by the ‘ Greyhound’ Birmingham
night-coach, the proprietors charging the Post Office
the fare of one outside passenger for the carriage
of it.

The reason of the extra pressure on the Post Office
on the Saturday and Monday nights was that there
was not any post out of London on Sunday night,
so that all letters which it was desired that country
correspondents should receive on the Monday
morning were obliged to be posted in time for
the mail out of London on Saturday night; while the
accumulation on Monday night arose from the letters
which had arrived from the country on Sunday
morning in London, and had to be passed on together
with the ordinary Monday’s correspondence, increased
250 THE COACHING AGE.

 

from there having been no post out of London on the
previous day.

I dare say many persons will scarcely suppose that
less than fifty years since it occupied a period of
five days, or if a Sunday intervened, six, for a letter:
to. be sent and the answer received between two
persons on the opposite sides of London, but not forty
miles distant from each other. Such, however, was
the case; and in order to show how it arose, I will
illustrate my case, and prove the veracity of my
assertions.

I will take A., living at St. Albans, twenty-one
miles on the north side of London, writing to B.,
resident at Brentwood, eighteen from it, making a
distance of thirty-nine miles only between them.
The same thing would apply to the distance from
Brentwood to Slough—only thirty-eight miles. I will
take the year 1836, being before any part of the
London and Birmingham railway was opened and
carried the mails, when letters travelled the whole
distance by the road mail-coaches; thus the period
to which I refer is only forty-eight years since. Both
St. Albans and Brentwood being beyond the radius of
the twopenny posts, and there being no day-mail to
either of them, they had but one delivery a day, and
all their letters and papers were conveyed by the
long mails.
THE POST OFFICE. 251

 

A., then, posts his letter for B. at nine o'clock on
Monday morning in the St. Albans Post. Office, where
it reposes in a state of quietude until about four
o'clock on Tuesday morning, when the Holyhead,
or one of the North mails, takes it up to St. Martin’s
le Grand, whether it further remains in a state of rest
until eight o'clock that night, when the Norwich
mail takes it down to Brentwood, which it reaches
about ten o'clock at night, and is delivered to B.
on the Wednesday morning. In order not to lose
any time, and perhaps not being perfectly acquainted
with all the minutizs of Post-Office arrangements,
B. posts his reply on Wednesday morning at ten
oclock. It remains, however, in the Brentwood
Post-Office until the Norwich mail, coming up about
four o’clock on Thursday morning, conveys it, after a
rest of about eighteen hours, to the General Post
Office, which it reaches about six o'clock.

A further period of repose here ensues, as the letter
les at St. Martin’s le Grand until eight o’clock on the
Thursday evening, when one of the North-country
mails, going through St. Albans, will drop it there a-
little after ten, when, after a quiet night’s rest
in St. Albans Post Office, it is delivered there to A.
between eight and niné o’clock on Friday morning,
being the fifth day after the correspondence had
commenced. Had it happened, however, to begin
252 THE COACHING AGE.

 

two or three days later, so that the Sunday would
have intervened, and B.’s reply reached London on
the Sunday morning, the letter would have remained
at the General Post Office till eight o’clock on Mon-
day night, a period of thirty-six hours ; this shows
how the increase of correspondence out of London
occurred on Monday nights.

A great deal of consideration was given at the
Post Office as to the means of sending correspondence
by the day-coaches out of London; but it did not
appear that there would be much benefit derived
from the plan, except to places not more than fifty or
sixty miles distant from London, when a letter posted
at ten in the morning might be delivered the same
evening in time to post a reply, which would reach
London the next morning. There was an objection to
making use of the coaches as mails, independently of
the additional expense which would have been
incurred for a few letters only, as a guard would have
to be carried together with the bags, and the coach-
proprietors paid for the accommodation thus afforded.

It was probably experimentally that the Brighton
and Dover day-mails were started, arriving at the
General Post Office between four and five, so that
letters received at those places early in the morning,
if answered immediately, would be delivered in London
the same evening.
THE POST OFFICE. 253

 

These were the only two places to which day-mails
out of London were established, perhaps they were
considered the only two places sufficiently important
within an available distance from London ; and there
was also the prospect of the railways partially opening

-and becoming of service in carrying mails out of
London in the morning, rendering the establishment of
- other day-mails unnecessary.

When this opportunity arose, it was still found
necessary to send a guard with the bags, for the same
reason that was alleged by the Post Office with regard
to the coaches, as it was said that the guard or
coachman of a stage-coach was principally concerned
about the passengers and luggage; but on a mail the
guard was their own servant, and had a specific duty
to attend to, whereas on a stage-coach the letter-bag
would be the last thing the guard would think of.

Before the railways out of Lendon actually opened,
and were taken into the service of the Post Office,
that is to say in 1836, a gentleman holding a high
position in the General Post Office, speaking as to the
anticipated facilities of forwarding the mails by rail-
road, said it would entirely depend upon a point
which had not been ascertained, viz., whether rail-
roads could be travelled on by night. He thought it
might be accomplished by gas-lights and strong lights
for short distances, but it was very questionable
254 THE COACHING AGE.

 

whether such a system could be made available for
long distances. This is rather in accordance with the
opinions expressed as to the travelling at night both
on the Leeds and Selby and Manchester and Liver-
pool lines in the days of their infancy.

As it was a convenient arrangement that all the
correspondence out of London should leave the General
Post Office at eight o’clock at night, an hour when all:
the business of the day was finished, so it was found
also convenient that it should all arrive at much
about the same time, and at an early hour in the
morning, for the general post delivery.

The departure from London took place in this
manner ; all the mails travelling northward, such as—

The Edinburgh, The Hull,
» Glasgow, » Leeds,
» Halifax, », Liverpool,
» Holyhead, » Manchester,

and some others, went out at the northern gate of the
Post-Office yard, opposite the Bull and Mouth; and
seven of them, which passed through Barnet, went up
Aldersgate Street; but the Edinburgh went down
Old Street and out of London through Shoreditch,
Tottenham, and on to Waltham Cross.

The mails running south and eastward went out at
the gate next Cheapside, and comprised —

The Dover, The Lynn,
» Norwich and Ipswich, ) «4, Louth,
» Norwich and Newmarket,
THE POST OFFICE. 255

 

and the Brighton and Hastings—both pair-horse
mails. With all the above, their loading was com-
plete when the guards got their bags up in the General
Post-Office yard, and they were then turned away at
once ; but with the western mails, eleven in number,
the arrangements were different. The guards got off
as soon as they could pack all the bags into the carts
which conveyed them up to the West End, where the
mail-coaches had preceded them.
Those for Piccadilly were—

The Bath, The Gloucester,
» Bristol, » Southampton,
» Devonport, » Stroud,
» Exeter, », Portsmouth.

Of these, all but the Portsmouth went through
Hounslow, where they diverged, some going on the
Staines Road, and others on the Bath—the Ports-
mouth going through Kingston and Guildford.

The other two western mails were the Worcester
and the Birmingham, wd Banbury; but they went
from the Gloucester Coffee House, or Green Man and
Still in Oxford Street, where the carts carried 2
their guards with the letter-bags.

Having explained how all the mails were got away
out of London, I will now mention the plan of their
arrivals, timed, as I have said, so as to effect a general
post-office delivery throughout London early in the

morning.
256 THE COACHING AGE.

 

The arrivals of the mails, or in the case of the
western ones the mail-carts, at St. Martin’s le Grand

were :

H. M.
Exeter 6 30
Leeds 4 65
Glasgow 5 15
Edinburgh 5 39
Halifax 5 45
Liverpool 6 0
Chester 6 0
Manchester 6 5
Devonport 6 49
Holyhead 6 54
Bristol 6 45
Portsmouth 6 40

All the others were timed to arrive before seven
o'clock, so that the sorting could commence, or rather
be completed, and the delivery take place without
delay. As no sorting could take place on the road,
and it was indispensable that it should be completed
before the letter-carriers could be despatched on their
several rounds, punctuality in the arrival of the mails
was the very essence of the system, and the failure
of one or more to reach their destination would
have disorganized the whole machinery. The import-
ance of this it was, probably, that led to the great and
almost unvarying punctuality of the mails, which was
conducted with such exactitude that the arrival of
the mail at any particular place on its route was
THE POST OFFICE. 257

 

taken as an infallible test of time, and a means by
which you could set your watch or clock.

Such was the mode in which the postal business of
the country was conducted and the admirable way in
which it worked up to the time when the railways
stepped in and swept it all away, so far as the mode
of conveyance was concerned.

The mail-coach era commenced in the year 1784
with the London and Bristol, and terminated gradu-
ally—the mails being partially or wholly taken off,
as the railways were opened and became available.
Probably by the year 1844 there was not any mail
running on the road out of London. In 1839 the
Bath, Bristol, Gloucester and Stroud mails were all
put on the Great Western Railway ; at a later period
the Devonport, Southampton, and Portsmouth went
by the South Western, the terminus of which was
then at Nine Elms. In the same year all the northern
mails were off the road, Chaplin and Horne having
thrown their interest into the North-Western Railway
Company.

Shortly after the establishment of the first mail-
coach to Bristol, a medal, rather larger than the
present halfpenny, was struck, having on each side
a mail-coach and horses; on one side was this in-
scription underneath the horses: ‘To trade expedi-
tion. To property protection.’ On the other: ‘To

IF
258 THE COACHING AGE.

 

J. Palmer, Esq., this is inscribed as a token of
gratitude for benefits received from the establish-
ment of mail-coaches.—J. F.’

The medal I saw was very much worn, and did not,
so far as I could discern, bear any date; neither was
there anything upon it to indicate to.whom the ini-
tials ‘J. F.’ referred, but not improbably to some
mercantile man in an extensive way of business, who
had experienced the benefit of the security and expe-
dition of the mail-coach system, if not on the Bristol,
on one or other of the several roads on which mail-
coaches were put, in some instances at the earnest
solicitation of the residents in towns along the main
roads, when the benefits to be derived from them
were manifest from the success of the Bristol mail.

I have mentioned how a letter arriving in London
on Sunday morning would be delayed in transit
in consequence of there being no mail out of London
on Sunday night.

This detention was a matter which received much
consideration at the Post Office, and great anxiety was
felt to remedy the inconvenience without inflicting
upon the Post-Office clerks the necessity of attendance
on Sunday.

One plan suggested was, that at the end of every
line of road nearest London a post should be
despatched, making a sort of circle round London;
THE POST OFFICE. 259

 

starting for instance from Romford, and going as
far as Hounslow, passing through Epping, Waltham
Cross, Barnet, Edgware and Southall. A post also
was to start from Shooter’s Hill through Bromley,
Croydon and Kingston to Hounslow; then an inter-
change of letters was to take place, and the posts
were to return to the places from whence they started.

Thus letters would avoid being passed through
London. But while the clerks at the General Post
Office were relieved by this scheme from attendance
there on Sunday, the unfortunate clerks in the country
would have had a very considerable addition to their
work on that day. The plan, however—much, I pre-
sume, to the delight of the rural officials of that day—
was not adopted. Even with the very limited amount
of correspondence at that time, 1836, it was calculated
that an acceleration of twenty-four hours would
be given to 3,500 letters. No doubt this: number
would have been -considerably added to after the
acceleration had taken place.

The vast increase in the number of letters, and the
different modes necessarily adopted in the manage-
ment of the Post-Office business, would perhaps
render it impossible at the present time to adopt any
scheme like the one suggested.

That the legislature had not been oblivious of the
Post-Office department, is manifest from the circum-

17—2
260 THE COACHING AGE.

 

stance that in 1836 there were not less than
141 Acts of Parliament, some wholly and others
partially existing, affecting the Post Office, commenc-
ing with one passed in the reign of Queen Anne, the
subject being the Duke of Marlborough’s pension
out of the Post-Office revenue.

With a view to consolidating all these Acts, Mr.
Peacock, the solicitor to the Post Office, prepared
four bills, the object of one being to repeal all the
existing Acts, and another to provide for the general
management and regulation of the Post Office.

While on the subject of the Post Office, a few
remarks as to the scope and nature of the duties
attached to it at the time just referred to, and at the
present day, may not be out of place.

When the mails were on the road, the work: of
the Post Office was confined strictly to the conveyance
of letters and papers, but it is now extended to the
Savings Bank, life insurances, granting annuities, the
telegraphic business, and the parcel-post.

As regards the latter department, the project of a
parcel-post conducted by the Post Office was mooted
as long back as 1836; and a gentleman, having in
the course of his business to receive and despatch
many parcels, gave it as his opinion that if the Post
Office took parcels at a fair rate, it would be a
great convenience to the public, and would add
THE POST OFFICE. 261

 

largely to the revenue of the Post Office, because the
public would consider it the surest conveyance, and
be willing, therefore, to pay more for it than they
did to the proprietors of coaches; in short, that
the parcel-post would always be preferred. But you
could not, in the then existing state of things, send
a small valuable parcel by the mail from any post-
office. He also thought that no person would object
to pay a high rate of insurance to be certain of
the safe transmission of a valuable parcel by the
mail. °y

The establishment of a parcel-post with the old
mails would have been impracticable, and its proposer
must have been unacquainted with the difficulty there
was in finding room in the mail-coaches for all the
letters and papers only, without any addition in the
way of parcels, for the conveyance of which the
coachman had barely room in the limited space in
the front-boot, which was partly occupied with the
passengers’ luggage.

It is now, as I have shown, nearly fifty years since
this idea of having a parcel-post in connection with
the Post Office was mooted, and at that time the
rate of postage was in proportion to the distance a
letter had to travel, and also whether it was single
or double. But even with the rate of postage high
as it then was, according to the statement of an
262 THE COACHING AGE.

 

extensive London coach-proprietor, it was cheaper to
send a letter by the post than forwarded as a small
parcel by coach. The charge for a parcel to
Brighton, for instance, was a shilling, and no parcel
by coach was charged less than that sum, while by
post the charge for a letter was only eightpence ;
but by coach the parcel would cost one shilling and
fourpence, including delivery, making a difference of
exactly one-half the expense in the two modes of
conveyance, In longer distances the coaches had no
chance of carrying parcels containing letters, the
difference being even greater. As no parcel from
London to Manchester or Liverpool would be less than
two shillings by the coach, the only instances in
which small parcels, perhaps containing a letter only,
were likely to be sent by the coaches would be when
time was an object, the mails leaving London only
once in every twenty-four hours; so in the event
of its being important to send a letter immediately,
it might be done by means of one of the day-
coaches. But this would only be applicable to parcels
going distances not exceeding sixty or seventy miles,
to places for which day-coaches started after ten
or eleven o’clock in the morning. All day-coaches
going a hundred miles would leave London at seven
or eight o’clock in the morning, before the day’s
business had commenced or the letters arriving in
THE POST OFFICE. 263

 

London by the mail in the morning had been
delivered.

No place like the large manufacturing towns,
Birmingham, Liverpool or Manchester, being within
the limited distance, would stand much in need
of the expeditious delivery of a vast amount of
business: correspondence, and hence perhaps the
subject of parcel-posts remained dormant for so many
years.

In the interval, however, various great and import-
ant changes have taken place in the Post-Office
department. In 1840 the penny postage was
established, and the Government Life Insurance and
Savings Banks were undertaken by the Post Office in
1860, the Post-Office Order department being of
much older date, originating as far back as the year
1792; but vast improvements have taken place, and
the utility of the system has naturally very much
increased in various ways since that time.

Another great benefit connected with the postal
department should not be passed over, viz. the
transmission of dividend warrants by post.

All persons who are so fortunate as to have a
large amount payable to them in dividends on stock,
may not know what facilities exist for receiving them
without the necessity of a journey to the Bank of
England, or giving some one a power of attorney.
264 THE COACHING AGE.

 

In the hope that some ladies may find it of service
to them, I will point out the course they should adopt
in order to avail themselves of the Post-Office system.

Any holders of stock in the public funds, residing
within the United Kingdom, may have their
dividend warrants sent to their addresses, by post, on
filling up and sending to the Chief Accountant of the
Bank of England a form, of application, which may be
obtained at the Bank of England, or at any of its
branches, or at any money-order office ; and all such
applications for the transmission of warrants should
be lodged at the Bank for the several quarters before
the 1st of December, the lst of March, the 1st of June,
and 1st of September.

With the substitution of railways as the postal con-
veyance in lieu of the road-mails, practically unlimited
space was at the command of the Post-Office authorities
in the railway mail-vans, and thus they were able to
carry the immensely increased correspondence con-
sequent upon the introduction of the penny post.

The speed, also, of the railways entirely changed
the relative position of London and the country
towns, so far as related to distance ; places 100 miles
from town, and which could only be reached by coach
in little less than twelve hours, could, by rail, be
reached in three or four: hence the establishment of
day-mails from London to places thus situate, as also
THE POST OFFICE. 265

 

many others at greater distances, which now have
two or more deliveries of letters from London in the
course of the day.

I do not know exactly how the hours of receipt
and despatch of letters may be arranged, but it
is quite clear that, as regards the time required, a
letter might be posted in London in the morning,
addressed to a person in a town 100 miles distant,
and a reply received the same evening. This is
somewhat more expeditious than the instance I have
mentioned of a letter and the reply requiring a period
of five or six days for their respective journeys by the
road-mail.

I daresay some of the old road-mail guards are
acting in the same capacity on the railways; and if so,
they will no doubt have contrasted the difference
between the modes of delivering and taking up the
letter-bags at the post-offices in the different towns
and villages on their route when with the mail-coach,
and the method in which that duty is now accomp-
lished ; with little to be done on their parts, but with
an ingenious piece of machinery attached to the mail-
van and to various posts along the line of railway, by
which the letter-bags are dropped or taken up in the
dead of the night, while the train is travelling at a
rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, or more.

Among other things which were seen only by
266 THE COACHING AGE.

 

persons travelling on mails at night were the post-
masters, or in some instances the postmistresses,
where the office was kept by a woman, exchanging
letter-bags with the guard.

There was no clever piece of machinery then exist-
ing by which the bags going away from the post-
office could be suspended in such a position that
the guard might catch hold of them as the mail
drove by, and at the same time deposit those he had
to leave.

On a mail at night, if you were entering a long
street or village, and the guard began to blow his horn,
there being nothing in the road, and the horses hay-
ing been changed only a short time before, you at
once supposed that you were about to arrive at the
village post-office, any doubt upon the subject being
shortly afterwards solved by the coachman pulling up
at a small house, or it might be the general shop of
the village, on the wall or window of which, beneath
the usual slit or aperture made for such purposes, you
could just discern, either by the light of the moon or
the lamps of the mail, the words ‘ Letter-box.’ By
the time the mail pulled up, an upper window (if in a
very rural locality probably a casement) would be
opened, and a ghost-like figure in a white head-cover-
ing would appear, handing down, by means of a cord
with a hook at the end, one or more leather
THE POST OFFICE. 267

 

bags to be dropped somewhere down the road, the
name of the place being printed on a small brass
label attached to the bag; the guard below was
ready to take them in exchange for any he might
have to leave, and which he accordingly put on the
hook to be drawn up into the bedroom of the post-
office official, who was then at liberty to return to bed
until the arrival of the other up or down mail, as the
case might be, when the same process had to be
repeated.

There used to be a story that some years before the
railways were made, and in the days when a blue
coat with metal buttons, buckskins, and top-boots
was a very common dress in the country, an old
man who had been a village postmaster for a good
many years, and who used in his absence to leave the
management of the office to his wife, very often in-
duced her to get up and deliver the bags to the mail-
guard.

Probably she had only a rushlight, or small tallow
dip in the room, giving scarcely light enough to dis-
tinguish anything, and hence she made the mistake
of attaching the buckskins instead of the leather
letter-bags to the cord and handing them down to
the guard. It was more than his place was worth to
take them on and deliver them at the Post Office by
daylight instead of the letter-bags, so he was obliged
268 THE COACHING AGE.

 

to tell the old dame of her blunder, and get her to
hand down the genuine articles.

When the story became bruited about, which of
course was very soon, the old people got considerably:
joked about it, and being probably unable to face the
guard or coachman again, she afterwards always left
it to her husband to exchange the bags.

That process did not take the guard long when
they were handed down correctly, and he was soon
up and off again, but occasionally an observation
would be addressed to the village post-office official,
which, if not sufficiently uncomplimentary to disturb
the night’s rest of that individual, would sometimes
draw forth a reply not expressive of the most tranquil
frame of mind. I should imagine that getting out of
bed in the middle of the night, being previously
startled in your sleep by the sound of the horn, was
not even in the height of summer particularly
pleasant, or calculated to put one in a good humour,
or in a mood to stand any chaff from passengers on
the mail.

The mistake made by the postmaster’s wife shows
how difficulties sometimes arose in distinguishing one
thing from another while travelling on a dark night.
The same difficulties would appear to exist also with
respect to distinguishing places under the same aspect,
as appears from a conversation between two young
 

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be
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POST

RURAL
THE POST OFFICE. 269

 

men, the one at college, and of a studious turn of
mind, the other quite the reverse, and very fond of
anything connected with horses or coaches. The
studious individual inquiring of his companion if he
knew algebra, the horsy one, not wishing to admit
that there was a place on the road with which
he was unacquainted, replied that he thought he had
been through it one night outside a coach, but it was
so dark he could not see much of it.

Somewhat similar must have been the position of a
guard on a night-coach up from Birmingham, with
respect to the parcels in the hind-boot when some one
stole his lamp at Woburn. But it was by no means
an unusual thing for the guard of a coach to put out
or cover the lamp of his hind-boot when the opposi-
tion was known to be not far behind, so that the
coachman following could not tell whether he might
not be miles ahead, and would not put on an extra
spurt to catch him up.

I have heard of a large bough being attached to the
back of a coach in the daytime, and trailed along the
ground in the dust to smother the passengers on the
coach following; for the truth of the story I don’t
vouch, but will say in the words of Sam Weller, ‘ Far
from it, on the contrary, quite the reverse.’

As the penny post was established in 1840, and
some of the railways out of London did not open any
270 THE COACHING AGE.

 

part of their lines until a year or two after that time,
and none of them were completed for a continuous
length of more than 100 miles for some time later,
there must have been a difficulty in transmitting
all the correspondence by the road mails. Although
the quantity of letters greatly and rapidly increased
under the reduced postage, it had not reached the
numbers attained shortly afterwards, and which, I
presume, have continued to increase annually since
its original introduction.

It is rather curious that, on undertaking the parcel-
post business, the Post Office have had to resort to
the road again. We do not certainly see the old
four-horse mail going along the road with the front-
boot nearly full of parcels, but we see the Post-
Office vans, with a pair of horses carrying them, much
I presume, to the detriment of the general carriers or
companies in that line of business.

That the parcel-post must have very materially
affected the parcel-traflic by railway companies and
parcel-carriers, there can be no doubt ; and in anticipa-
tion of its introduction, and with a view to securing
as much of the trade as possible, they issued a table,
setting out very reduced rates for carriage, but still
not so low as those of the parcel-post.

The railways still adhered partially to the plan
of charging according to distance, while the Post
THE POST OFFICE. 271

 

Office adopted the plan of making weight the sole
regulation of the price to be charged, commencing
with threepence for a parcel not exceeding three
pounds, and terminating with a shilling for seven
pounds, the greatest weight carried.

Thus it will be observed that the difference which I
have pointed out between the old parcel-conveyance
by coach and the parcel-post is very considerable,
no parcel under any circumstances going for less than
a shilling by the coach, while nothing is charged
more than that by the parcel-post.

As the reduced scale of the railways runs up to
weights far beyond what the parcel-post will take,
and also greatly lowers their charges on parcels not
exceeding the weight of seven pounds, there is
probably a brisk competition for the business. How
far the Post-Office undertaking may be a profitable
one, I have not the means of stating, and perhaps
sufficient time has not elapsed to form a satisfactory
conclusion as to its success.

There is not now so much difference between the
railway charges and the parcel-post as there used to
be between a letter sent by post and one sent by
coach in a parcel ; the railways will now carry seven.
pounds a distance of 400 miles for one shilling and
threepence, and the parcel-post will do it for one
shilling ; the postage of a letter for that distance
272 THE COACHING AGE.

 

used to be about one shilling and twopence, but if
sent ina parcel by mail or coach would be more than
three shillings and sixpence.

Whether the carriage of parcels by the Post Office
—which seems to be a purely commercial matter,
and not necessarily adopted in the due conduct of its
legitimate province in conveying the correspondence
of the kingdom—be financially successful, may, as
I have observed, he scarcely ascertainable at present ;
but it bears somewhat the aspect of assuming a branch
of business which could be efficiently carried out with
means already existing. That what I may call the
enforced reductions made by the railway companies
in their charges are most welcome to those who have
to pay them, I have no doubt; but one would
imagine that private enterprise through the medium
of companies or individuals alone would have been
equal to accomplishing that object without the in-
tervention of a Government establishment. But
while expressing this opinion, I would also observe
that the railways have almost a monopoly of the
carrying business, and from the readiness with which
they seem to have issued. their reduced tariff in
anticipation of the parcel-post coming into operation,
it may be inferred that they had been receiving rates
for carriage beyond what would return a reasonable
profit after all expenses were discharged.
THE POST OFFICE. 273

 

The last fifty years have been an eventful period in
the history of the Post Office; the exclusive field
it occupied in the letter department having so vastly
increased through the medium of the penny post,
it cannot be charged with a want of vitality or pro-
gression, and the important additions which have
devolved upon the Postmaster-General’s office have
rendered necessary the erection of the large and com-
modious building opposite the old Post Office of St.
Martin’s le Grand.

When only twenty-eight mail-coach loads of bags
went out from the Post-Office yard nightly, except on
Sundays, at eight o'clock, nothing like the present
amount of accommodation was required ; but probably’
one room which was then in use is now appropriated
to some other purpose.

It was called the Mail-Guards’ Room, and in it all
the guards had to assemble every night in order that
the inspector on duty in London might see that they
were all sober and fit to go on duty, and that they
might receive their time-pieces and firearms, consist-
ing of a blunderbuss and brace of pistols, which, so
far as I am aware, no one of the guards ever fired
off—not even on the memorable occasion when the
lioness seized a leader in the Exeter mail on Salisbury
Plain, near Winterslow hut. From personal observa-
tion of these firearms, I should say that before the

18
274 THE COACHING AGE.

 

guard could have unfastened the leather cases en-
closing their locks, the lioness would have had ample
time to seize and carry off the mail leader, and per-
haps guard too.

No department of the Government, I should say,
has undergone such important alterations, or had

such new and extensive duties assigned to it, as the
General Post Office.
CHAPTER XIV.
JAPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT.

As it is intended that this book shall in some measure
contain useful and authentic records relative to travel- -
ling prior to the railway era, a few time-tables of
some of the most important mails, such as the London
and Edinburgh, the London and Glasgow, and the
Holyhead and London, together with those of two
or three other mails and some coaches, will be in-
cluded, in order to give a correct idea of the time
occupied in the transit of correspondence from one
place to another, and also the time required for
ordinary travellers to go from place to place by con-
veyances less expeditious or punctual than the mail-
coaches.

Very curious and different are the meanings
attached to the term ‘express’ as used with respect
to travelling now, and rather less than sixty years
ago. If a person speaks of sending by, or travelling
by, the express, it at once conveys an idea of the rate

18—2
276 THE COACHING AGE.

 

of progression being somewhere about fifty miles an
hour, as the Great Western will take you from
London to Bristol in about two hours and a half; the
South Western to Exeter in four hours, and the
London and North Western to Edinburgh or Glasgow
in nine or ten.

In the year 1827, when the General Post Office
was in Lombard Street, any person on applying there
could, as a matter of right, be furnished with what
was in the phraseology of the period an express
for the conveyance, not of himself, but of a letter ; it
was said that they were very seldom resorted to,
but still there they were. The mode of forwarding
the letter was by a messenger on horseback; the
Post-Office authorities considered the letter ought to
be conveyed at the rate of seven miles an hour; the
charge was elevenpence a mile. These expresses did
not go nearly so fast as a mail, as the following time-
bill shows :
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT. 277

 

Time BILL OF THE LONDON AND EDINBURGH MAIL.

 

Contractors’
Names.

Time

London through York to
Edinburgh.

 

 

Sherman =
Grisewood for Com-

pany.
Meyer for Company

Bradshaw -

Hennessy -
Coveney 2

Whincup -

Burbidge -

Burbidge - -

Lawton -
Gilstrap ~

Sharp 7

Inett - -

Dunhill - - -

e

ry
MWrMmqaws) ou WOAIRMENOWT bo

ems Sa em

no WNNONWAOD or

BRE OOF
—m~

ww

m

wo - Bo wap om NN
woo oo H bo wow one on

kone!

~~

na

 

 

Bi

1 25

11
1 26
a)
1 33

0 33

0 42

1 30
0 48

1 20

0 58
0 25

0 43
1 26

2 Allowed.

Despatched from the General

 

Post Office, the of , 183,
at 8 P.M.

Coach No. § With time-piece
sent out safe, No. to
Arrived at Waltham Cross at

9.25
Hoddesdon
Arrived at Ware at 10.26
Buntingford
Arrived at Buckland at 11.52
Royston
Arrived at Arrington at 12.57
Caxton
Arrived at Huntingdon at
2.30 A.M.
Arrived at Alconbury Hill at

3.3

Arrived at Stilton at 3.45

‘Wansford

Arrived at Stamford at 5.15

Arrived at Stretton at 6.3

Coltersworth

Arrived at Grantham at 7.23
by time-piece, by clock

Coach No. (Delivered the
gone for- time-piece safe,
ward No. to

Forty minutes allowed

Arrived at Long Bennington
at 8.53

Arrived at Newark at 9.30

Arrived at Scarthing Moor
at 10.34

Tuxford

East Retford

Arrived at Barnby Moor at
11.49

Bawtry

Arrived at Rossington Bridge
at 12 47

Arrived at Doncaster at 1 12
P.M.

Arrived at Askern at 1.55

Arrived at Selby at 3.21

 

 
 

 

 

278 THE COACHING AGE.
Time BILL oF THE LONDON AND EDINBURGH MAIL (Continued).
» ®
Contractors’ Be London to"York from
Names, & a Edinburgh.
MF. |-H.M.
Barber - -| 142 | 1 83 | Arrived at York at 4.54 by
time-piece, by clock
Coach No. ( Delivered the
gone for- time-piece safe,
ward No. to
0 40 | Forty minutes allowed
Cattle and Maddocks} 13 2 | 1 20 | Arrived at Easingwold at 6°54
Hirst -| 106 |1 4 | Arrived at Thirsk at 7.58
Hirst - - - 90 | 0 54| Arrived at Northallerton at
8.52
Smith - - -| 160 | 1 36 | Arrived at Darlington at 10.28
Hoult , . 93 Rushyford
9 2§| 1 55 | Arrived at Durham at 12.33
( 62 Chester le Street
8 2 Gateshead
| 1 27 | Arrived at Newcastle at 1.50
A.M. by time-piece, by
Clough -|4 clock
Coach No. ( Delivered the
gone for- time-piece safe,
ward No. to
(14 4 | 1 32 | Arrived at Morpeth at 3.22
‘Pearson - -| 101 | 1 1 | Arrived at Felton at 4.23
Wilson - 90 | 0 54 | Arrived at Alnwick at 5.17
McDonald and} 146 | 1 30 | Arrived at Belford at 6.47
Lumsden. by time-piece, by clock
Coach No. (Delivered the
gone for- time-piece safe,
ward No. to
0 30 | Thirty minutes allowed
Lumsden -| 15 2 | 1 30 | Arrived at Berwick at 8.47
: . 74 Ayton
Bid dad Mecnes 4p 3t 1 99 | Arieed ak Houndiwondat 10/0
Cossar and Sawers-| 15 6 | 1 32 | Arrived at Dunbar at 11.41
.McDonald- - -| 110 1 4 | Arrivedat Haddingtonat 12.45
Piper -| 167 | 1 38 | Arrived at General Post Office
at Edinburgh, the of ,at
2,23 P.M, by time-piece, by
clock
( Delivered the
ere re ate time-piece safe,
397 8 [42 93 | artive No. to

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the time-bill in

1837, when, by way of
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT. 279

 

making greater speed, the Postmaster-Ceneral had
stipulated that no stage should exceed ten miles.

Lord Campbell thus relates his experience of a
journey by this mail some years previously :

‘A journey to London was in those days (in
the year 1798,) considered a very formidable under-
taking. I was to perform it by the mail-coach, which
had been recently established (the first mail to
Edinburgh was started in 1784), and was supposed to
travel with marvellous velocity, taking only three
nights and two days for the whole distance from
Edinburgh to London.

‘ But this speed was thought to be highly dangerous
to the head, independently of all the perils of an
overturn, and stories were told of men and women,
who, having reached London with such celerity, died
suddenly of an affection of the brain. My family
and friends were seriously alarmed for me, and
advised me at all events to stay a day at York
to recruit myself.’

The fares, he mentions, were £10 from Edinburgh
to London; to York, £4 15s.; and from York to
London, £5 5s.

His further experience in travelling at a somewhat
later period, namely in the year 1802, he thus
relates :

‘Left the White Bear, Piccadilly, at four in the
280 THE COACHING AGE.

 

a
morning, six in and eight outside passengers.

Changed horses at Dartford, and breakfasted at
Rochester ; dined at Canterbury, but the dinner was
so bad I could not touch it, so employed an hour in
visiting the cathedral, etc. We did not arrive at
Dover before nine.’

Seventeen hours for a journey of seventy-one miles,
the distance from London to Dover, must have been
most tedious work, and anything but likely to cause
‘an affection of the brain’ from ‘ celerity, like the
Edinburgh mail; but the length of time consumed in
this journey can in some measure be accounted for
when it is noticed that the change was at Dartford,
certainly not less than seventeen miles from Piccadilly,
and then an hour or more seems to have been allowed
for dinner at Canterbury.

I now give the time-bill of the London and
Carlisle mail, because this continued to Glasgow,
so that these two, the Edinburgh and the Glasgow,
were the only two mails running from England into
Scotland, and conveyed the whole of the cor-
respondence backwards and forwards between the
two countries; the Post-Office arrangements being
such that they not only carried the London mail-
bags and those of all places along the two roads they
travelled, but they took on those from Manchester,
Liverpool, Birmingham, Exeter, and in fact, as I have
said, the whole country.
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT.

281

 

Time BILL oF THE LONDON AND CARLISLE MAIL.

 

 

Contractors’
Names,

Time

 

Sherman - -

W. and G, Wright-

Arnold
Coveney

T. Whincup -
H. Whincup -

Burbidge

Lawton -
Lister
Dawson -
Dunhill -
Outhwaite -

Clemishaw -

as aman —-- A Fee

_

WOM AWOUMN MAHAN Hoe

RPROOONH PP ROA OR IB DOD
am A ew eye

SCS TN ea

ro
H—HWRE OS

ee
NO, BG G0 CO OD

mow

ye

 

 

5

1 18
1 28
1 20

0 56
0 53

1 4
0 57

50

40
36
48
19
49

23
23

59
44

RoOoCoO

35

e | Allowed.

 

Despatched from the General
Post Office the of , 183,
at 8 P.M,

Coach No. { With time-piece

sent out safe, No. to

Arrived at Barnet at 9.18

Hatfield

Arrived at Welywn at 10.46

Stevenage

Arrived at Baldock at 12.6

Biggleswade

Arrived at Caldecot at 1.24.m.

Arrived at Eaton at 1.55

Buckden

Arrived at Alconbury at 2.59

Arrived at Stilton at 3.56

Wansford

Arrived at Stamford at 5.28

Arrived at Stretton at 6.18

Coltersworth

Arrived at Grantham at 7.40
by time-piece, by clock

Coach No.) Delivered the
gone for- time-piece safe,
ward. No. to

Forty minutes allowed.

Arrived at Foston at 8.56

Arrived at Newark at 9.44

Arrived at Ollerton at 11.3

Arrived at Worksop at 11.52

‘| Arrived at Bagley at 12.40

Arrived at Wadsworth at
1.3 P.M.
Arrived at Doncaster at 1.26
Arrived at Pontefract at 2.53
Arrived at Aberford at 3.52
Arrived at Wetherly at 4.36
By time-piece at
Coach ao } y by eS ck ;
eal °F offat bytime-
ward, piece
Thirty-five minutes allowed.
Arrived at Boroughbridge at
6.23

 

 
282

THE COACHING AGE.

 

Time BILL oF THE LONDON AND CARLISLE MAIL (Continued).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

s
Contractors’ ae
Names. as
<
MF. | A.M,
Cook - 12 1 | 1 12 | Arrived at Leeming Lane at
7.35
Couldwell 110 |1 6/ Arrived at Catterick Bridge
at 8.41,
Fryer - - 90 | 0 54 | Arrived at Foxhall at 9.35
44 | 0 27! Arrived at New Inn, Greta
i Bridge, at 10.2
Maen + -/4100 | 1. 8 | Arrived at New Spital at 11.10
94 |1 5 | Arrived at Brough at 12.15
Fryer - - 80 | 0 52 | Arrived at Appleby at 1.7
A.M,
Donkin - -| 134 | 1 21 | Arrived at Penrith at 2.28
Teather - - 93 | 0 55 | Arrived at Hesketh at 3.23
Barton - - - 8 6 | 0 54 | Arrived at the Post Office at
Carlisle the of ,183 , at
4.17 AM.
Coach No. } By time-piece,
arrived, by clock
302 7 |32 17
Time BILL OF THE CARLISLE AND GLAsGow Malt.
a
Contractors’ ae
Names. BS
MF | OM. we
Despatched from the Post
Office, Carlisle, the of ,
183 , at 5 AM. by time-
piece, by clock
London mail arrived at 4.17
A.M.
Manchester mail arrived at
4.48 orca
Gcack on. wah ine pies
sent out. 46 i v
Teather junr. - 96 | 0 55 | Arrived at Gretna at 5.55

 

 
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT, 283

 

Time BILL OF THE CARLISLE AND GLASGOW Malt (Continued).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contractors’ 2 3
Names. He
<
M.F. | HM.
92 | 0 53 Arrived at Ecclefechan at
Burn and Paton 6.48 ‘
5 6 Lockerby
5 of 1 1 Arrived at Dinwoodie Green
at 7.49
Wilson - 93 | 0 53 | Arrivedat Beatock BridgeInn
at 8.42. Bags dropped here
for Moffat, two miles dis-
tant.
Toll Bar. Bags dropped here
for Leadhills, six miles
(14 0) distant.

43 §|1 44 | Arrived at Abington at 10.26
| 90 | 0 52] Arrived at Douglas Mill at
| 11.18. Bags dropped here for
| Douglas, two miles ene

Milton toll bar. Bags droppe
Burn and Paton - | for Lesmahago, Moa ae

60 longs distant.

| 20§| 0 46 | Arrived at Knowknack at
12.4

| 93 | 0 53 | Arrived at Hamilton at 12.57
(11 0 | 1 3] Arrived at the Post ‘Office,
Glasgow, the of , 183,

at 2 p.m. by time-piece, at

by clock. 4 "
Delivere the
— mg time-piece safe,

. No. to
947 190

 

 

 

In like manner, as two mails conveyed all the
correspondence to and from Scotland, three per-
formed the same service for Ireland, viz., the Holy-
head, the Gloucester—running through South Wales
to Milford Haven, 264 miles, occupying a period
284 THE COACHING AGE.

 

of twenty-eight hours—and

the Bristol. The time-

bills of the ‘ Holyhead’ and ‘ Gloucester’ follow. The
Bristol was allowed eleven hours and three quarters.

Time BILL OF THE LONDON

AND HoLyHEAD Matt.

 

Contractors’
Names,

Time
Allowed.

 

me

Chaplin -
2 44

1 48
0 54

Goude - =

Company - -

ee ey oe eee

Wilson < =
Garner - i
Carter -

Thaddell -

e

—
omraANA ONorEWwoar

AOPNOND ANWMaAbaeHep

_aA

0 35

Chapman and Brown 0 46

Evans - - -
1

H. J. Taylor -

bo 22

1 13
0 45

Nwwo
OPW O wl

oor
ane

84

 

 

 

10 2
J.Taylor -~ -

Despatched from the General
Post Office, the of ,183 ,
at 8 P.M.

Coach No. § With time- piece
sent out safe, No.

Barnet

Arrived at Colney at

St. Albans

Arrived at Redbourn at 10.44

Market Street

Dunstable

Arrived at Brickhill at 12,32

Fenny Stratford A

Arrived at Stony Stratford
at 1.26 a.m.

Arrived at Towcester at 2.12

Arrived at Daventry at 3.25

Arrived at Dunchurch at 4.11

Arrived at Coventry at 5.18

Arrived at Stonebridge at

Arrived at Birmingham at 7.8
by time-piece, by clock

Delivered the

Cond Be: time-piece safe,

No. to

Thirty-five minutes allowed

Arrived at Wednesbury at 8.28

Bilston

Arrived at Wolverhampton
at 9.1

Arrived at Shiffnall at 10.14

Arrived at Haygate at 10.59

Bags dropped here, and taken
up from Wellington, two
miles distant

Arrived at Shrewsbury at
11.59. Five minutes allowed

Arrived at Netcliffe at 12.52

 

 

 
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT,

285

 

Time Bint of THE LONDON AND HoLyHEAD Matt (Continued).

 

Contractors’
Names,

Time

 

Bolus -
Griffith
Clarke

Owen

Hughes -

Bicknell -

Atkinson -
Spencer

 

Onn oo!
Noo AB

NANUAHD
ce Dap

1
ma mm oe tN

he
NON”
meOO oO

me om
ms x 2 Allowed.

BR © G2 DD
nEES SSS ov

Pe OG Occooocoo
on
rw

e
No

 

259 2

 

26 55

 

Arrived at Oswestry at 1.45
P.M.

Chirk

Arrived at Llangollen at 2.57

Arrived at Corwen at 3.57
by time-piece, by clock

Twenty-eight minutes allowed

Arrived at Tynant at 5.1

Arrived at Cernioge at 5.39

Arrived at New Stables at 6.21

Arrived at Capel Curig at 7.2

Arrived at Tynamus at 7.46

Five minutes allowed at Pen-
ryn Arms

Arrived at the Ferry House
at 8.43

Arrived at Mona Inn at 9.43

Arrived at the Post Office,
Holyhead, the of , 183, at
10.55 p.m. by time-piece,
by clock.

Coach No.

: ime-pie
amrived time-piece safe,

No. to

 

 

{Mane the

 

GENERAL POST OFFICE.—THE EARL OF LICHFIELD, HER
MAJESTY’S POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

'LoNDON AND GLOUCESTER TIME BILL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Couteactors’ Number oS
oN lof Passen- Ae
ames. gers. & a

In |Out| MF. |B. M.

 

Despatched from the
General Post Office the
of ,183 ,at P.M. by
time-piece,at by clock.
With time-
Coach No. %
eantcat piece safe,
No. to
Arrived at Gloucester
Coffee House at

 

 

 
286 THE COACHING AGE.

 

LONDON AND GLOUCESTER TIME BILL (Continued).

 

 

 

j Number o3
a of Passen- & E
: gers. =
<q
In ;Out) Mr. | H.M. ;
‘Masere. u 3 angel at Hounslow at
Horne. olnbrook
9 2§|3 8 | Arrived atMaidenhead at
9 1 Henley
Costar and 4 6 Nettlebed
Waddell. 6 2 Arrived at Bensington at
11 7)| 3 30 | Arrived at Oxford at
by time-piece, at by
clock
0 10 | Ten minutes allowed
J. Masters & 11 4 | 1 10 | Arrived at Witney at
J. Masters,
jun.
Day - 7 2 \ Burford
9 64] 1 45 | Arrived at Northleach at
Dangerfield - 7 4 { Andoverford
5 2§] 1 20 | Arrived at Cheltenham at
Seven minutes allowed
9 2 | 0 50 | Arrived at the Post Office,
Gloucester, the of ,
‘111 3 112 0] 183 ,at a.m. by time-
piece, at by clock
Delivered the
Coach No. time- piece
arrived safe, No.
to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The time of working, etc.,
By command of the P. M. G.,
GroRGE Stow,
Surveyor and Superintendent,

One noted character appears among the persons
horsing this mail—Day, the great racing man and
trainer.

As a specimen of a slow mail the Portsmouth, it
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT. 287

 

will be seen, occupied nine hours in a journey of
seventy-three miles only. It appears from the bill,
which is dated April, 1841, that this mail had not
then been put on the London and Southampton Rail-
way for any part of its journey.

GENERAL POST OFFICE._THE EARL OF LICHFIELD, HER
MAJESTY’S POSTMASTER-GENERAL,

LoNDON AND PortsmMouTH TIME BILL.

 

*

Contractors’
Names.
a

Time

 

.| Despatched from the
General Post Office, the
of ,184 ,at by time-
piece, at by clock
Coach No. With _
piece safe,
sent out No. ta
Arrived at the Gloucester
Coffee House at
1 35 | Arrived at Kingston at
Esher
Cobham
1 25 | Arrived at Ripley at
Guildford
1 18 | Arrived at Godalming at
Mousehill
1 32 | Arrived at Liphook at
1 3 | Arrived at Petersfield at
57 | Arrived at Horndean at
Cosham
1 20 | Arrived at the Post
Office, Portsmouth, the
of ,184,at by time-
piece, at by clock

 

 

2 Allowed.

In |Out| M. F.

=

m

Chaplin and
Gray

eee

s
POAUNWBWON PO WR Ww

AWMPWHHEN=UhOO

a)

Coach No.
arrived

time-piece |

 

(Cie

safe, No.
to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The time of working each stage, etc. Up-time allowed the same.
By Command of the Postmaster-General, _
GrorGE Stow, Surveyor and Superintendent.

1
288 THE COACHING AGE.

 

The next mail is slower still than the Portsmouth,
but then it was only a pair-horse mail, the ‘ Hastings,’
the time-bill of which ran as follows:

GENERAL POST OFFICE.—VISCOUNT LOWTHER, HER
MAJESTY’S POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

Lonpon AND St. Leonarps Time BIL.

 

Contractors’ Pass-
Names, engers.

Time

 

2 | Allowed

In |Out| m.F.

a

Despatched from _ the
General Post Office
the of ,184,at by
time-piece, at by clock

Coach No. ee cae
sent out Nas to.”

Bromley

1 53 | Arrived at Farnborough
at

Arrived at Seven Oaks at

Tunbridge

Tunbridge Wells

3 20 | Arrived at Woodgate at

Lamberhurst

Arrived at Stone Crouch
at

0 54 | Arrived at Robertsbridge
at

Battle

1 30 | Arrived at Hastings at

0 10 | Ten minutes allowed.

0 12 | Arrived atthe Post Office,

St. Leonards, the of ,

184 ,at by time-piece,

at by clock

Delivered

68 1 | 8 57 | Coach No. the time-

arrived piece safe,

No. to
Up-time - 8 48 | Returned
The time of working each stage is to be reckoned, etc., according to
the form at the foot of all the mail time-bills used by the Postmaster-
General. By command of the Postmaster-General,
Grorce Stow, Surveyor and Superintendent,

Down-time in 1840, nine hours. Up, 8.45
se BD

Distance, 1840 and 1841, 68m, 7f.

Horne and
Gray

Harris- - )

B. Pawley
and E. Paw -
ley ‘

e ANWAW|MN WH

Chamberlain
and Emary

e or, a NaNWUGo PO

Oo aa

Ra ae RR ge SS
Oo
or
Co

(
|
l

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT. 289

It appears that the contractors had found difficulty
in keeping time with this mail as a pair-horse concern,
especially as some parts of the road were very hilly,
and they therefore had an interview with Mr. Stow,
one of the inspectors of mail-coaches, on the subject,
and as the proprietors addressed a letter to him,
which will be subsequentiy given, he most probably
requested them, according to established official
custom, to submit their application to him in writ-
ing, in order that it might be laid before the Post-
master-General ; but before adopting this course the
proprietors held a meeting to settle the important
document, and also some questions between them-
selves as to distances and supply of oil for the
mail-lamps. A minute of their meeting ran as
follows :

At a meeting of the Hastings Mail Proprietors, it is agreed as

follows, viz. :
That the application to the General Post Office shall be made as
per statement for an additional allowance beyond the present one.
That the distance each person shall share shall be the exact
distance as per time-bill, adding at the two ends one mile
additional, which will be as follows:

Miles.
Horne and Gray - - i )
Golden Cross to G. P. O. 14 say 17
G. P. O. to Farnborough 15 §
Harris - 254
E. Pawley 8
B. Pawley - Ft

' 19
290 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Miles.

Chamberlain and Emary 112
” ” ” : 12 say 14
tay lal —=

ord 7 ”

714 miles.

 

That many disputes have arisen as to the allowance for oil in
the accounts, whereby Messrs. Horne and Gray are to refund each
£5 7s. ; and that Messrs. Emary and Chamberlain be allowed one
quarter’s oil each from Christmas, 1840, to Lady Day, 1841,
£6 8s. 2d. each, and to January 5th, 1842, each party since
Michaelmas to be paid alike, when Messrs. Horne, Gray, Emary
and Chamberlain are to render at each quarter’s settlement the
bill for the exact quantity supplied.

B. W. Hornez, Rost, GRAY, JUNR.,
JOHN Harris, JAS, EMARY,

Bensm. PAwWLEY, Wm. CHAMBERLAIN,
Epwp. Pawiey, 4H. Hornr.

It will be seen that there were two London
proprietors in this concern, Horne of the Golden
Cross, and Robert Gray of the Bolt in Tun. The
result of the above meeting was transmitted to Mr.

Stow in the following letter :

Golden Cross, Dec. 28th, 1841.
Sir,

Since our interview with you this morning, we have given
consideration to the future working and payment for such duties
as relate to the Hastings and St. Leonards mail.

Ist. That to keep better time, and satisfy the parties who are
working over bad ground, at a great disadvantage, the present
mails be drawn throughout by four horses, at an additional allow-
ance of threepence a double mile.

2nd. That the present contract as to time and coaches be con-
tinued, leaving either party to work four horses as the stage may
require, to enable him to keep time, and not to destroy the horses ;
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT. 291

 

and as we feel that the mail would be supported less than now,
should it travel at less than the present speed, and earnings being
already very indifferent (not fifty shillings a mile) we trust that
his lordship, the Postmaster-General, will allow us an additional
twopence per double mile, from and after the 5th of January
next, to continue the present contract under these circumstances,
should he not compel us to make it a four-horse mail through-
out.

3rd. We further beg to state that, as the South Eastern
Railway will probably be. opened in May next, we trust our
contract will be permitted to be determinable by either party
giving to the other three months’ notice at any period after the
5th of April next.

We are, etc.,

B. W. Horne, H. Horne,

Rost. GRAY, JUNR., W. CHAMBERLAIN,
BengM. PAWLEY, Epwp. PAWLEY,
JOHN Harris, JAMES EMARY.

Gro. Stow, Esa.

To this letter Mr. Stow replied :

General Post Office, Jan. 11th, 1842.
SIR,

I have submitted to the Postmaster-General the letter
addressed to me on the 28th ulto., by the contractors for the
London and St. Leonards mail; and I have much pleasure in
acquainting you that his lordship has been pleased to grant the
contractors an additional twopence per double mile to enable
them to work the coach with four horses over the hilly and.
difficult parts of the road. I request, therefore, that you will com-
municate with the Company, and have it thoroughly understood,
that under any circumstances the time is in future to be strictly

maintained. .
I am, sir,

Yours, etc.,
B. W. Horng Gro. STow.

19—2
292

THE COACHING AGE,

 

The next time-bill is that of a coach that travelled
much the same road as the Hull mail, but not at so
fast a pace, and with longer time allowed for stop-
pages, and consequently was about two hours and a

half longer in performing the journey. Unlike the
other time-bills, however, it does not give the.
distances the coach was horsed by the several pro-

 

 

prietors.
Express TIME BI,
Down, 30th August, 1837. Guard.
Despatched from Spread Eagle at 4.30 o’clock.
‘i ‘ a3 as al State Cause
Proprietors. Towns. a 3 aa a 4 of Delay.
H.M.| H. M.
Chaplin - Watton 3 20] 7 50
L. Wright Baldack 1 26; 9 16
W. Wright Biggleswade 0 55/10 11
Waples Eaton 1 11/11 22
Supper 0 25)11 47
Dexter andj Alconbury Hill-| 1 30] 1 17
Cartwright
Core - Peterborough -| 1 40| 2 57
Layton Bourne -| 157) 4 54
Bailey Folkingham -/| 1 6] 6 0
Breakfast - -| 0 25} 6 25
Bellany - Sleaford -| 1 6) 731
‘Cox - Green Man -| 1 6) 8 37
‘Stephenson Lincoln -| 1 3] 9 40
Office (duty) -| 0 15] 9 55
Keyworth - Spital -  -| 1 25]11 20
Walkden Brigg -  -| 1 20)12 40
‘Walkden Barton - ~-| 1 20] 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The up-coaches left Barton waterside at half-past
five, and the times were slightly varied. Thirty
minutes were allowed for supper at Lincoln, and
EXPRESSES PAST AND PRESENT. 293

 

thirty minutes for breakfast at Buckden, and different
names appear in some instances in the up-bill.
These allowances of half an hour each for supper and
breakfast are more liberal than those accorded to the
passengers on the day-coach from London to Man-
chester, who only got twenty minutes for their break-
fast, and the same time for their dinner ; but then, in
order to get through the long distance in the day, it
was absolutely necessary to economize time as much
as possible, and only devote to stoppages for any
purpose whatever so much as was indispensable.

Of course, the shorter the time allowed for meals
the better for the innkeepers. Twenty minutes to
get off some of your wraps, or at all events warm
your fingers a little in very cold weather, so as
to enable you to hold a knife and fork or spoon, and
some time to wrap yourself up again, left little to
devote to the actual consumption of the eatables and
drinkables; and he must have been a very quick
feeder who could get half-a-crown or three-and-
sixpence-worth out of the meal. Anyone starting
with a plate of hot soup—if there was such a thing
on the table—would inevitably be out of the hunt
altogether.

Railways, it is true, only allow ‘about ten minutes
at refreshment stations ; but then you go such long
distances in so short a time, that even in a journey
204 THE COACHING AGE.

 

from London to Edinburgh, Glasgow,: or the extreme
west, you may travel without any refreshment, and
yet without subjecting yourself to the inconvenience
or suffering of a Dr. Tanner.

According to the latest railway arrangements, I
believe you may now dine while the train is actually
continuing on its journey, so that you are entirely inde-
pendent of any stoppages for getting a meal. This
is the Express of to-day; the old Expresses were
coaches bearing that name, but not travelling at
an extra rate of speed.*

* The horse expresses, for conveyance of letters only, seem to

have fallen into disuse long before even the fast coaches were put
on the road.
CHAPTER XV.

COACHMEN.

In coaching-days there used to be four brothers
driving on the western roads—the eldest on the
Oxford, and the other three on the Bath.

Their name was Stacey, and according to seniority
I believe they ranged thus—William, Richard, John,
and Henry; as they were known on the road by the
customary abbreviations of Bill, Dick, Jack, and
Harry, and as I never heard them called anything
else, I will adhere to those names in speaking of them.

Their positions when I first became acquainted
with them were—Bill on a day-coach from London to
Oxford ; Dick on the Bristol mail from London to
Newbury, down one night and up the next ; Jack on
one side of the Bath mail, between the same places,
down one night and up the next; and Harry on the
other side, in the same way.

I seldom travelled with Bill, and never with Dick;
but often with the other two, both between London and
Newbury and on the lower ground, where Harry was
296 THE COACHING AGE.

 

driving a coach between Newbury and Bristol. They
were very pleasant men to travel with, there being
nothing in the slightest degree low or slangy about
them. Jack’s countenance, when he was recounting
anything at all funny, was inexpressibly comical.

He once related to me the following circumstance
in connection with one of his earliest applications to
be put on a coach; I must premise, however, that
the story unavoidably loses half its zest for want of
the narrator’s countenance.

He applied to Costar and Waddell, the large coach-
proprietors at Oxford, for a situation; but from the
remark that old Costar made, I assume that his ap-
pearance was not quite of the ‘down-the-road’ order,
and led Costar to doubt whether it would be advis-
able to employ him.

Costar remarked to some one who was with him
that he ‘ didn’t like the curl in the brim of the young
man’s hat.’ Jack did not hear the remark at the
time, but by some means it afterwards reached his
ears, when, as he said in telling the story to me, ‘I
soon had the curl out of the brim of my hat.’.

To say we had a hearty laugh over it is perhaps
quite unnecessary ; he did not, however,..work for
Costar and Waddell. The story, I presume, he com-
municated to his brothers, who most likely took the
hint; for certainly when I became acquainted with
COACHMEN. 297

 

them some years afterwards, they all wore their hats
with the brims guiltless of any curl, and as flat as a
billiard-table, which was in accordance with the shape
of the ‘down-the-road’ hats of that period.

Before going on the Bath mail Jack Stacey drove
Cooper’s ‘Old Company’ day-coach from London to his
Cottage at Thatcham for several years, down one day
and up the next, and lodging at the Cottage. The
situation was easy and pleasant; he left Piccadilly
every other morning, including Sundays, as the
coach ran every day, at seven o'clock, and reached
the Cottage at ten minutes to one, when the coach
stopped for the passengers to dine, and his day’s
work was finished. The next day he got on the
box again at the Cottage, at two o’clock, and drove
up to town, reaching Piccadilly at the Old White
Horse Cellar at ten minutes to eight. That the coach
travelled at a fast pace may be known by the fact of
its doing the fifty-three miles in five hours and fifty
minutes, with six changes, and not any guard to help
or other horsekeepers than their own, Cooper not
being connected with any other coach-proprietor on
the road.. I believe none of the other coachmen
boarded or lodged at the Cottage.

‘The ‘York House,’ which was the crack day-coach
to Bath, left Piccadilly at the same time as the ‘ Old
Company ; but it was a matter of etiquette between
298 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the coachmen that they should only pass each other
either at a change or stoppage, which was not an
unustial arrangement on other roads.

It happened, however, one day, that the coachman
on the ‘York House’ violated this rule; but Stacey
managed to pass him again before reaching Thatcham,
and when the ‘York House’ came by at a pretty
brisk pace, the ‘Old Company’ coach was standing at
the Cottage with the horses off, and Stacey was at the
door with a spoon in one hand and a basin of soup in
the other, which he held up for the inspection of the
coachman and passengers on the ‘York House.’ It
is, perhaps, needless to add that the coachman was
very savage ; but the passengers seemed to enjoy the
joke greatly—they had to go three miles farther on
to Newbury before they stopped for dinner.

Stacey continued working for Cooper until the
failure of the latter, when he got put on to the Bath
mail by Chaplin. As all Cooper’s coachmen and
guards were paid by himself, it naturally happened
that at the time of his failure he was indebted to
several of them in considerable amounts, Stacey being
among the number, and in due course they substan-
tiated their claims in a legal form; the process I
could not understand exactly, but according to his
account an individual whom he designated a ‘ Master
in Chancery ’ was mixed up in the business.
Hanhart imp

 

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COACHMEN. 299

 

Unluckily for the creditors, the dividend paid was
so small that the recipients at once proceeded to
dispose of it in some sort of festivity, consisting
probably of a good dinner, accompanied by some-
thing to console them for their irreparable loss. I
think I may venture to state that it was not a Blue-
Ribbon party. That the occurrence did not awaken any
melancholy reflections in after years in Stacey’s mind
I can bear ample testimony, from his hilarity when
he related the circumstances to me, not many years
since—long after all the coaches had been taken off
the road by the Great Western Railway.

He drove the Bath mail about seven years without
any accident, although it was timed at a pretty good
pace, but not quite so fast as the Bristol, of which he
availed himself one foggy night as a sort of pioneer ;
but something being said about his being late, he
replied that he was quite sure that couldn’t be the
case, as he had kept his leaders’ noses close up to the
hind-boot of the Bristol mail, which should have been
some distance before him.

In the Bristol mail sharing account will be seen an
item of ‘ Runners, £1 13s. 4d.,’ the meaning of which
I dare say may puzzle those of my readers who are
not intimately acquainted with London mail or coach-
ing accounts; so I will explain it, especially as it is
connected with a somewhat ludicrous incident which
300 THE COACHING AGE.

 

happened with the Bath mail during the time Stacey
drove it. '

The mails going westward all agen from the City,
where the principal part, of their passengers were
booked.; but some places, say one inside and one out-
side, were reserved for those residing at the West
End, and who could book their places at one of the
West-End offices in the Regent Circus, Gloucester
Coffee House, or other office in connection with that
in the City, so that if all the City places were booked
and an application was made for another seat, the
book-keeper would start a quick man, such as
was always to be found about a coach-office, to go
up to the West-End office, and if there was a vacant
seat secure it. This man, then, was the ‘runner,’ and
he would return to the City and inform the book-
keeper of the result of his journey.

Such a thing as a mail going out of Piccadilly th
more than four inside I suppose was never heard of,
except in the instance I am about to relate, as Mr.
Johnson, for many years one of the mail inspectors,
said he never had any occasion to proceed against
persons who had carried more passengers than the
contract: allowed, although he had proceeded against
a good number of persons at different times when
they had been refractory, and wilfully lost time.

One night the Bath mail was booked full inside all
COACHMEN, 301

 

the way down, when a gentleman, who was a regular
customer, wanted to return home to Marlborough, and
there was no other means of his getting there. Stacey
held a council with the book-keeper, observing that
it wouldn’t do to leave the gentleman. behind, as he
was a constant customer; but how they were to get
out of the dilemma, neither of them was able to
explain. Ultimately, I believe, it was solved by the
gentleman himself getting in just as the mail was
starting. So off they went from Piccadilly with five
inside. A squeeze it must have been, even if they
were all small men; but on this point I have no in-
formation.

Arrived at the Bear at Maidenhead, where they
changed, Stacey went to the coach-door and said :

‘There’s time for you to get a cup of coffee here,
gentlemen, if you like just to get out.’

Not one, however, would move, fearful that if once
out he might not be able to get in again. In this
way, packed about as close as sardines in a box, they
travelled down to Newbury, fifty-six miles from Lon-
don, and the end of Stacey’s journey. They had
then, however, seventeen miles to go on to Marl-
borough, where the extra passenger resided, and he
got out without any expression of regret either on
the part of himself or his fellow-passengers at the
parting.
302 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Stacey related the story with great glee to me,
especially as the difficulty had been got over without
any breach of his duty or his being involved in any
row about it.

Driving, although for several years a good deal of
it was night-work, does not seem to have disagreed
with Stacey, who. died at Newbury about two years
since at the age of eighty.

A partnership of coach-proprietors at Speenham-
land (or, as it was better known on the Bath road,
Newbury, of which place it, in fact, formed part), like
the coach proprietors on some other lines of road,
issued a printed form similar to a bank-note, announc-
ing the starting and arrival of some of their coaches;
it ran in this way:

Greyhound, N.B.—Mercury in fourteen hours.
Market Place. \ George Masters, Bank, Speenhamland.

Chippenham, Marlborough, Newbury, Reading, Maidenhead
and London podst-coaches set out from the Greyhound, Market
Place, Bath, every day, at four, afternoon, to Hatchetts Hotel,
Piccadilly, and Saracen’s Head, Snow Hill, London. Coaches also
from the Pope’s Head, and Pelican. Bristol every day to the

above inns in London, by
May anp Mountain.
Royal Blue.

Fare—inside, one guinea ; outside, twelve shillings.

In the left-hand corner was a drawing of a grey-
hound, with some building representing the inn
known by that sign.
COACHMEN. 303

 

In the place where the words ‘Royal Blue’ were
printed was some ornamental printing work, similar
to that on bank-notes.

I have only known one other instance of what I
may call a coach being overbooked inside, and that
happened to a coachman on quite a different road,
who gave this account of it :

‘On one occasion, I remember that on a wet spring
morning I found the coach had been overbooked,
which subjected the proprietors to the charge of
a post-chaise: for the whole distance, involving an
expense of ten pounds, in which the unfortunate
book-keeper who had committed the error would be
unmercifully mulcted. On my arrival at Kingsland
Gate, having already three inside passengers, one of
whom was a baronet, two others, whose names had been
entered in the book for a week, claimed their places.

‘T had been made acquainted with the error prior
to my mounting the box, and earnestly pressed by
the delinquent to do all I could to save him from the
penalty.

‘ Accordingly I got down, and knowing that with
rational people a plain statement of facts has always
the best effect, I explained, in as few words as
possible, the nature of the dilemna we were in.

‘“ You are bound to find a conveyance, coachman,”
said a crusty old limb of the law, who sat muffled up
in one corner. .
304 THE COACHING AGE.

 

‘« T am aware of that, sir,” I replied; “ but I was
about to submit to you the hardship that one poor
subordinate of the establishment will have to suffer if
you are all determined to take advantage of this
error and keep your seats.’

‘« How do you propose to remedy it ?” asked the
Baronet.

‘Tt can only be remedied in one way,” said I,
“and that is by one getting out.”

«* And which of us is that to be? Are we'to cast
lots ?” he inquired.

«« Why,” I replied, “in common fairness it ought
to be the last who was booked. This lady and
gentleman” (who were standing at the coach door; I
knew them to be the widow of Buonaparte’s General
Drouet and her son) “ have been booked a week.”

** And who was the last to pay 2?”

**« You, Sir William,” I said.

‘Without another word or further delay, he at once
got out, and taking the seat beside me which I had
purposely reserved, we proceeded on our. journey, and
he said not a word in disparagement of my decision.’

The man to whom the above incident occurred had
at one time been a coach-proprietor as well as a
coachman, and was the son of a coach-proprietor in a
large way of business. After his death the son
continued in business in both capacities for some
COACHMEN, 305

 

years, and still drove after ceasing to be a proprietor.
Anticipating the entire abolition of coach-travelling,
he drew up a petition to Parliament on the subject,
and got it presented by a member for the town in
which he resided, and from which he used to drive.
The petition, like a great many others, was ordered to
lie on the table, and was, I believe, never heard of
any more. Some of the views and opinions ex-
pressed in it are rather singular, so I think I cannot
do better than quote it in the petitioner’s exact
words. It ran thus:

‘That your petitioner was originally brought up in
a noble profession, but from a visitation of Providence
and other circumstances over which he had no control,
was compelled to seek subsistence as a stage-coach-
man.

‘That your petitioner has now followed that
employment for eight-and-twenty years, and during
this time has been enabled to provide for a wife and
large family in a respectable manner.

‘That your petitioner has seen, with considerable
dismay, the invention and rapid increase of railroads
during the last few years, accomplishing the ruin of
hundreds in the same employment as your petitioner,
and‘now, by the numerous bills before your Honour-
able House, threatening the very livelihood of your
petitioner and his numerous family.

20
306 THE COACHING AGE.

 

‘That your petitioner, not actuated by selfish
motives alone, but viewing with deep sympathy the
distress, the discontent, the poverty and the ruin that
has lately, and does now, partially pervade the land,
would humbly point out to your Honourable House
how much the invention and use of railroads has had
to do with their increase.

‘That your petitioner, passing over the large
amount invested in turnpike trusts, now become
bankrupt, in consequence of substituting railroad for
stage-coach travelling, which has been more than
once mooted in your Honourable House, would pro-
ceed at once to show the direct injury, the devastating
ruin that has fallen, not only on those immediately
connected with stage-coach business (with the excep-
tion of a few, and those of an extraordinary character),
but through them on every class of tradesmen in-
habiting towns situate in any of our great thorough-
fares, whether they be north, south, east or west.

‘That your petitioner would further proceed to
show that this injury has its ramifications from one
end of the island to the other, threatening the
depreciation of property to a ruinous extent, as
a proof of which your petitioner need only point
to every town in the kingdom which a railroad has
approached, except’ two or three of our largest cities
and towns, and even to them the benefit would
COACHMEN, 307

 

become questionable should the state of every class
of their overcrowded populations he strictly looked
into.

‘That your petitioner is not unwilling to admit the
convenience, the luxury, nay, even the safety and
importance as regards speed of the new mode of
travelling, as also to acknowledge the truth of the
French philosopher's axiom, that the quick com-
munication of persons and thoughts is the very per-
fection of civilization; but your petitioner would
humbly submit that luxury is not happiness, any
more than civilization is prosperity in a nation or in
a family.

‘That your petitioner views with considerable
alarm for the welfare and happiness of his country
the immense amount of capital already invested in
railroads, amounting, with the cost of those now
introduced or intended to be introduced to your
Honourable House, to more than three hundred
millions* sterling, and that your petitioner's
alarm arises from this vast accumulation of capital,
its tendency having been at all times, and in all
nations, to make the rich man richer and the poor
man poorer, thereby oppressing the working classes,

* According to the late Board of Trade return, the capital in-
vested in railways, in the United Kingdom, is seven hundred and
eighty-four millions, and upwards.

20—2
308 THE COACHING AGE.

 

and grinding our already debased peasantry to the
very extreme of misery, inducing the increase of
atrocious crime to a most fearful extent.

‘That your petitioner would also show that these
monster establishments render anything like competi-
tion impossible, and create a monopoly which, under
any circumstances and in any form, is, has been, and
ever will be, inimical to the best interests of the
community.

‘That your petitioner witnesses the investment of
such capital in a financial point of view by individuals
in certain trunk lines as being beneficial as well to the
country as to the shareholders, inasmuch as they (the
latter) get good interest for their money, and are
thereby enabled in some measure to counteract the
evil they have produced ; while others, many of them—
some that have passed and others now before your
Honourable House—originating in false premises, and
projected by artful and designing men, are calculated
to give rise to a spirit of gambling, successful for a
while, but which must ultimately involve, if they
have not already done so, the ruin of thousands who
have, under some specious pretexts, consented to
become their dupes, such systematic adventurous
schemes being derogatory to the national character,
subversive of that safe and healthy state which
the monetary transactions of a | great commercial
COACHMEN. 309

 

country should ever enjoy, incompatible with the
industrious habits as well as prejudicial to the social,
‘moral and religious obligations of the people.

‘That your petitioner has long and deeply thought
of and deplored the late dilapidated state of our
finances, the state of our debt, revenue, expendi-
ture, and resources, as well as our present un-
wholesome system of taxation; and your petitioner,
with his faculties unimpaired, and the same zeal
to serve his country as he had when he first put his
foot on board of a man-of-war, is prepared to prove
before any committee your Honourable House shall
appoint, upon certain returns being produced, that
such a revenue can be raised from the present mode
of travelling, as shall surpass all others in its efficiency,
its safety, its equality, its justice, and its policy, and
that, too, without any interference with vested
rights.

‘ And here your petitioner cannot but remind your
Honourable House that in cases where great changes
have been wrought, care has always been taken
of vested rights ; such as with the Municipal Reform
Bill, which provides compensation for the clerks
‘of different corporate towns.

‘Therefore your petitioner, lastly, prays that in
passing any bills having reference to railroads, in
some or one of them such provision shall be made
310 THE COACHING AGE,

 

as shall prevent your: petitioner and his family from
coming to the extreme of misery.

‘ And your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever
pray.’

I do not know in what manner the petitioner pro-
posed to raise a revenue from ‘the present mode of
travelling’ which should ‘surpass all others,’ as the
great grievance of the coach-proprietors always was
the heavy taxation to which they were subjected,
and the unfairness of the duties to which their
business was assessed by ‘Government—while the
imposts either on railroads or steamers were wholly
disproportionate, and did not place the different
modes of travelling on a fair basis of competition.

In the early part of his petition the petitioner
states that he was ‘not actuated by selfish motives
alone,’ in presenting his petition; and for this I
think one may fairly give him credit, knowing,
‘as he must have done, many persons engaged like
himself in the coaching business, and entirely de-
pendent upon it for their livelihood: so that while
advocating his own cause he was also assisting them,
but the concluding paragraph in his petition I may
now comment upon without fear of either hurting
his feelings or prejudicing his position.

The request that in some, or at least one of any
railway bills to be introduced in Parliament, some
COACHMEN. 31r

 

provision should be made to ‘prevent him and his
family from coming to the extreme of misery’ savours
rather of the comic element; and if a similar pro-
vision extending to all persons similarly situated
had also been inserted in the railway bills, the com-
panies would have had a considerable reserve fund to
provide. Moreover, his petition came rather late, as
it was not presented till 1846, when all the principal
lines out of London had not only got their Acts, but
opened part of their lines, and so far as coaches
out of London were concerned, had cleared them
off the road, together with their coachmen and
guards. Before this time, though, the petitioner gave
some advice useful even to young coachmen of the
present day, which I will here repeat as the result
of his extensive practical experience :

‘It is an old saying, and a very true one, that four
horses well put together are half driven, therefore no
man can be a proficient in the art without paying the
nicest attention to the bitting, bridling, harnessing,
putting to, and coupling his teams; and without such
attention, as well as the proper length of each trace,
the pole-chains, and a proper adjustment of the curb,
and seeing that the collar, pads, and harness fit in
every part, that every buckle and strap is in its
right place, no man can drive in crowded streets
with precision and safety.
312 THE COACHING AGE.

 

‘By this attention, too, the horse goes with more
ease to himself, and is less likely to gall and chafe,
which will frequently make the best-tempered animal
fretful and fractious in harness.

‘The consequence and the necessity of paying a
strict attention to and acquiring a perfect knowledge
of these early rudiments of our art, I once experienced
myself.

‘ Beginning at the Golden Cross, passing through the
City, and making my exit by Shoreditch Church from
the metropolis, I had plenty of stonework. One
morning a fresh horse was put to my coach, one that
had only been purchased the day before, and, what
was contrary to all adopted custom, harnessed as near
leader. It was of no use to expostulate, so after
looking round I- got up. Starting and proceeding
along the Strand and Fleet Street he went pretty
straight, except that he carried his body rather away
from his partner, as young horses in a strange or new
position are apt to do; but a slight communication
from under his bar soon put that to rights. After
stopping at the corner of Wood Street we proceeded
along Cheapside by the Bank to the commencement
of Threadneedle Street, where he made a bolt to go
down Broad Street. I had my hand upon his rein in
an instant, and prevented his taking the wrong road ;
but there being a post in the shape of a gun with the
COACHMEN. 313

 

muzzle downwards, I could not catch him up in time
to prevent his going on the inside of it. In the
same instant, seeing that the leaders’ bars would be
caught by the post, having my wheel-horses tight in
hand, I drew their reins back. This caused them to
throw their heads up, and that, acting upon the pole-
chains, jerked the bars over the top of the post ; at the
same moment, as it were, hitting the near wheel-
horse, he brought the splinter-bar clear, and neither
horse, harness, nor any part of the coach or carriage
touched the post. This occupied only a few seconds,
for the wheels never ceased turning, and the escape
from any accident must be attributed to the care and
nicety with which the horses were harnessed and put
to, and proves the necessity of a coachman having a
perfect knowledge of the bearings of every part of the
harness, so as to have a perfect command of his wheel-
horses ; for here there were three chances, that is, of
the bars coming in contact with the post, the pole
breaking in the splinter-bar, or the near fore-wheel
striking the post, either of which might have been
attended with bad consequences, and was avoided by
the pole-chains being of a proper length, and the
wheel-horses being properly curbed up.

‘Many accidents, some of them of a most serious
nature, have occurred from neglect or want of know-
ledge of these indispensable rules, and no man can be
314 THE COACHING AGE.

 

called a perfect master of the art of driving without
possessing a matured judgment and experience on
these points. He may have admirable skill in using
the whip, but without the former qualifications he
will never attain anything like perfection.’

The proprietors were the most important men con-
nected with the road, as they provided the capital
for purchase of the horses, harness, ete. ; but although,
according to the old adage, it is ‘money makes the
mare to go,’ there was a good deal besides money
required to make many of the mares go that were put
into the coaches, especially with some men’s stock,
with whom it was rather a principle, though not
openly avowed, to engage their coachmen by the
same rule that a man would enlist the services of a
professional pugilist; it being considered that the
man that could hit hardest would produce the
greatest effect on the horses, and get them along
when a man of less athletic power might be unequal
to the task. A man would be rather chary of com-
plaining that he could not get the horses along, as
he might have been met with the remark that
perhaps some other man could. This would apply
more to the days when coaches were not so well
horsed as in later times, and also to heavy night-
coaches.

When a coach was loaded with two or three hundred
COACHMEN. 315

 

parcels, and packages weighing nearly three tons,
without passengers, it wanted a good deal of horse-
power to get it through the country; and the coach-
man and guard, with fourteen or fifteen passengers
altogether, weighed close upon, if they did not
exceed, four tons; the guard forming no inconsider-
able addition, if like the one on the Leeds ‘ Courier,’
who was said to weigh twenty stone.

William Mills was the proprietor and driver
of a coach called the ‘ Royal Forester,’ starting
from Monmouth early in the morning, running to
Gloucester, a distance of twenty-eight miles, through
Coleford and the Forest of Dean, stopping at the
King’s Head, and returning in the afternoon. The
main road from Monmouth to Gloucester, and on
to London, did not run this way, but through Ross,
and had this disadvantage, that when the floods
were out in the valley of the Wye, the road for a
considerable distance beyond Monmouth, where it
ran parallel to and very near the river, would be
under water to the depth of several feet; and you
might see the London mail going along, with the
water up to the coach doors, although the mails were
then built much higher than at a later period.

This road, however, was afterwards altered, and
carried from the town over higher ground farther
away from the river, so avoiding the floods alto-
316 THE COACHING AGE.

 

gether. Another advantage gained by the alteration
was an improvement in the entrance to the town, that
was formerly by a narrow street known as Church
Street, which at the London end had a house the upper
part of which projected over the pavement, so that if
the wheels of a coach just cleared it, an outside pas-
senger could barely escape coming in contact with
the building; and there was scarcely room for two
carriages to pass in this street, which was the main
thoroughfare for all the trafic from London and
intermediate places—as Oxford, Cheltenham, and
Gloucester—to South Wales.

By running his coach through Coleford and Mitchel-
dean, Mills had the road all to himself, and I believe
he made a very good thing of it.

The distance to be travelled not being great, and
the passengers persons. whose time was not very
valuable, the wear and tear of his stock was incon-
siderable ;. but if time had to be made up, and whip-
cord was required to be brought into play, he
was fully capable of administering it, being a strong,
powerful man; and I believe some of the coach-
proprietors for whom he. afterwards drove on other
roads, thought he was rather too free in the use
of it.

He afterwards drove, on the lower ground from
Newbury to Bristol, the ‘ Monarch’ night-coach ; and
~QV0uU AHL 440 SUMaAVaAT

out Je YUE]

yalq2 ap ssabame p

 
COACHMEN. 317

 

during that. time he had a guard of the name of
Shinner, whom he one night, on the up-journey, unin-
tentionally left behind at Hungerford, where they
changed. ;

There were no passengers at the back of the coach,
and the roof was loaded high with luggage, so that
Mills did not notice that his guard was not up,
and kept driving on, while the guard was in a
little back bar-parlour, unaware that the coach had
started without him; but by some means or other
he managed to overtake it, most probably by jumping
on one of the mails, which were a good deal faster
than the ‘ Monarch,’ and would be coming up about
that time.

At one time Mills drove the Bristol and Liverpool
mail, but whether it was before he went on to the
‘Monarch,’ I don’t know. With another man he
drove between Bristol and Hereford, a distance of
fifty miles; but afterwards he drove the whole
distance on both sides, up and down, making just
100 miles. Leaving Bristol in the evening, he reached
Hereford about. midnight, when he turned into bed
for his night's rest, having to be ready for the
up-mai] from Liverpool, which arrived at Hereford
about seven o'clock in the morning; and he then
took it on to Bristol, reaching there about mid-day,
having to cross the Severn at the Old Passage. By
318 THE COACHING AGE.

 

this means he had the advantage of .two sets of
passengers, generally Bristol or Liverpool merchants
and business men, who tipped pretty freely. As
he said, at Hereford, when he opened the coach door
and announced that it was the end of his journey,
there were always four half-crowns ready for him.
This, with the three or four outsides, must have
made it a pretty good service, as the mail loaded
well, and ran every night, including Sundays.

The road between Chepstow and Monmouth, at
a place called Redbrook, where it joins the road
running through the coal district in the Forest of
Dean, on the right-hand side coming from Chepstow,
is bounded by a steep hill, thickly wooded, which
shades the road, and somewhat darkens it at night ;
added to which the coal dropped on the road, and
black refuse from the coal-pits scattered about, make
it almost black for a considerable distance.

The road is not very broad, but affords plenty
of room for two vehicles to pass without difficulty by
daylight. In this part of the road is a small bridge
across the brook which gives the name to the locality,
but being of brick—rendered rather dark in colour
from the accumulation of coal-dust on it—and on
the level of the road, without a rise or fall on
either side, it is not a very conspicuous object on
a dark night. In order to give some protection to
COACHMEN. 319

 

‘travellers, and prevent them from driving right up
against the bridge, corner-stones, rounded off, are
placed on each side of. the bridge at both ends,
similar to those which may be seen in many places
where there is a sharp turning round a wall which
forms a corner.

These stones at the ends of the bridge being
rather obscured from the same cause as the road and
the bridge itself, by way of seeing them better at
night, Mills, when he was on the Bristol and Liver-
pool mail over this part of the ground, used to
pay a cottager living close to the bridge half-a-
crown a year to keep the stones well whitewashed,
so that he might see them on the journey when
coming from Bristol The mail travelled at a
great pace, and passed over this bridge about nine
or ten o'clock at night; so what with the road
being overshadowed, and the ground dark, it was
not very comfortable travelling, even with good
lamps. The hour when the mail passed along the
road of course came to be pretty well known, among
the residents, who, in driving along it at the time
when they expected shortly to meet or to be passed
by the mail, drove into one of those spaces which
are left along the sides of roads for depositing heaps
of stones until broken and put down; and there
they remained until the mail went by, probably
320 THE COACHING AGE.

 

at a gallop, with its four lamps and a bull’s-eye
blazing away. If there did not happen to be a stone
depét at hand when the mail was heard coming,
they squeezed as close as possible into the hedge,
and waited there till it had passed.

The coachman who drove on the other side with
Mills was a tall and powerful man, known by the
name of Jack White. He was not a member of the
Blue Ribbon Army, as I discovered in travelling on
the mail with him one night.

Just before entering the town of Monmouth, and
where the road is rather on the descent, a tram-
way, used only for coal waggons drawn by horses,
crosses the road, and has, therefore, to be - crossed
by the mail; it happened in doing so, either from
the jerk the mail received in crossing the tram-
way quickly, or from some other cause to which I
need not further allude, Mr. White was pitched off
the box, but most miraculously without sustaining
any serious injury, or the horses bolting with the
coach, which arrived safely at the Beaufort Arms in
the market-place, where they had to turn round
before changing, in order to get into the road leading
to Hereford, the next town the mail passed through
after leaving Monmouth.

Mail-coachmen and mail-guards did not always
work quite harmoniously together, and when any.
COACHMEN. 325

 

difference or ill-feeling arose between them, there was
a difficulty in setting matters straight, owing to the
circumstance of the men being servants of different
masters, although having to continue working to-
gether. On the coaches it was otherwise, where
the coachman and guard were both under the
same body of proprietors, who had the power of
dismissing the guard if he was in fault; but they
had no control over the mail-guard, the servant
of the Postmaster-General, who, if the guard dis-
charged his official duties properly, would not pay
any attention to differences between him and the
coachmen.

I think the guard had rather the command of
the position, and could make himself more objection-
able both to the coachmen and proprietors than they
could by retaliating upon him in any way. He
could refuse to allow the coachman to stop at any
place not down on the way-bill for the purpose,
and report him to the Post Office if he did so ; while
when they were on good terms there was generally
some little public-house where they used to pull up
just for a minute or two.

The guard might also report the state of the
harness or horses if the condition of either led to
any loss of time; and although it formed part of
his duty to assist in changing horses when not

21
322 THE COACHING AGE.

 

engaged with Post-Office work, he might render next
to no assistance without laying himself open to any
charge of neglect of duty: so, time being lost in
the changes, a report to the Post Office might bring
down an inspector on the proprietors, who, in their
turn, would be down on the coachman.

It happened that while Mills was on the Bristol
and Liverpool mail there was a young fellow, one of
the guards, who made himself very offensive to him.
This young fellow had just started a new drab
overcoat, of which he thought a good deal, and did
not fail to show it. It struck Mills one night that
this would afford a good opportunity of paying him
off for the annoyance he had given, and if any altera-
tion was necessary in the harness during a stage he
would call to the guard, whose duty it was to get
down and make it. So Mills pulled up and called to
this guard, who got down and came to the front in
the drab coat, when Mills told him to alter the near
wheeler’s inside trace a hole. This necessitated the
unhooking the rusty, muddy pole-chain, rubbing
against the pole and horse, and pulling and tugging
about for some time, but all to no purpose, for the
buckle probably had not been out of the hole for a
long time; so Mills told him to pole the horse up
again. Need I add that the appearance of the drab
coat was not improved—much to the chagrin of the
COACHMEN. 323

 

wearer, but to the gratification of the coachman,
who got on just as well without the trace being
altered, seeing that it was not at all necessary in the
first instance, and was only ordered as a means of
paying off an instalment of an old score, although
I don’t think this fact was communicated to the
wearer of the coat.

If they happened to be travelling through a rather
hilly country, a few extra occasions of having the
drag put on unnecessarily might be made available,
The relative position of the mail guard and coach-
man was illustrative of the difficulty of serving two
masters.

As I was a good deal amused by the story Mills
told me one day of an unprofitable journey he made,
I will repeat it as nearly as I can recollect, merely
premising that it took place some forty-five or fifty
years since, and in the days when pugilistic en-
counters were openly conducted, and the names,
weights, and colours of the combatants, together with
detailed accounts of the encounters, were duly re-
ported in the sporting papers.

A fight between two noted men—one, I think, a
Londoner, and the other a Bristol man—was an-
nounced to come off somewhere on the borders of the
Forest of Dean, and Mills engaged an omnibus and
four horses to take a fabulous number of persons from

21—2
324 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Monmouth to the scene of action, about six or seven
miles, at a certain rate per head.

On the morning of the eventful day he started
with a full load, and after travelling along some by-
lanes reached the spot which was supposed to be the
right. place.

Numbers of people from Monmouth and the neigh-
bourhood had done the same, and being in the vicinity
of the coal-pits in the forest, it is scarcely necessary
to add that the pitmen mustered strong. Not so,
however, the belligerents, neither of whom appeared ;
and after waiting some time a report got about that
the event was to come off at another place some few
miles off. Hence a move became necessary along
some narrow lanes, and this place being at last
reached, the multitude concluded that they had now
actually arrived at the correct spot, and that the
event they had come out to see would certainly come
off. No better success, however, awaited them here
than at the spot where they first halted; and at last
it became certainly known that nothing would come
off, though they were not able to ascertain for what
reason.

At all events, no fight took place, much to the
disappointment and vexation of those present, in-
cluding the omnibus passengers, who were loud and
vigorous in their expressions of dissatisfaction ; and
COACHMEN. 325

 

in order in some measure to appease them, Mills
had to refresh them all liberally. Then, having
come out for the day, they did not feel disposed
to return immediately, which rendered long and
repeated stoppages necessary at divers public-houses,
where they seemed to take it as a matter of course
that Mills, having brought them out, must provide
them with all they chose to have in the way of
eating and drinking, till they were landed again in
Monmouth. The unfortunate termination of the
day’s excursion for Mills was that he spent all the
money he received for conveying the people on the
omnibus from Monmouth and back again, in treating
them while they were out in order to quiet and
reconcile them to their disappointment, although it
was no fault of his.

No doubt some people will say, ‘ Sarved him right!’
but in those days amusements and sports were looked
upon in a different light to what they are now. We
need not go many years further back to learn that the
prize-ring was patronized by the highest members of
the aristocracy, even including royalty.

Lord Althorp, a great agriculturist—Chancellor of
the Exchequer, who brought in the Poor Law Act in
1834, under which the present system of poor-law
unions was established, and who afterwards succeeded
to the title of Earl Spencer—made it a point, in
326 THE COACHING AGE.

 

fact considered it almost a matter of duty, to attend
every prize-fight between men of any notoriety. So
that with such examples I don’t think Mills was
much to blame after all.

When he left off coaching he had for some years
a public-house in Monmouth.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE SCRATCH TEAM.

As scratch teams consisted of horses put together
promiscuously, which had not previously been work-
ing in company, so I purpose in this chapter putting
together short accounts of a few persons and circum-
stances which from time to time have come to my
knowledge, but have not been put together before.
The first I will take is Green—which, I think, my
narrative will show is a most appropriate name—and
in order to distinguish him from his father, I will
call him ‘Young Green.’ But before proceeding
further I must state that the narrative is strictly
according to fact, merely mutato nomine, as mem-
bers of the family, whose real name is by no means
common, would almost certainly be recognised by it.
To proceed, then. Young Green was the second
son of the Rev. (I cannot do better than call him)
Very Green, a gentleman who shortly after leaving
Oxford became the rector of an extremely small
parish, some 120 miles down in the West of England,
328 THE COACHING AGE.

 

in the stone-wall country. The living was of small
value, but there was a snug rectory-house ; and the
rector, being possessed of private means, kept his car-
riage and horses, farmed his glebe land, and lived
very comfortably, having, like most country clergy-
men, a quiver full—consisting of his eldest son, who
took Holy Orders, four spinster daughters, Young
Green, and two boys at school, one at Winchester,
the other at Eton.

Like many university men of his day, he was, I
suppose, about as unacquainted as a man well could
be with business matters ; and indeed I question very
much if he had ever been in anyone’s counting-house
or office in his life when he settled down in his parish,
where he became, comparatively speaking, shut out
from the world. He was eventually made a magis-
trate, which brought him into contact with some of
the neighbouring squires and gentry when attending
the magistrates’ meetings—held some two or three
. times a month at an inn in an adjoining village.
His opportunities, however, of acquiring a knowledge
of general business and the ways of the world were
not facilitated very much, the cases brought before
the Bench being of a trivial nature; if they did
chance to get hold of a sheep-stealing case it
was considered a grand thing, and afforded a theme
of conversation at the various local dinner-parties
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 329

 

up to the time of the assizes, when of course it
became necessary to go and hear the case tried by
one of her Majesty’s judges, with an array of counsel,
all in their wigs and gowns. Their speeches, the
examination of the witnesses, and any jokes made in
court afforded a grand fund of amusement for some
time afterwards. The stupidity of the western agri-
cultural witness, I suppose, somewhat exceeded that
of other districts, and hence drew from one of the
judges at the assizes on the Western Circuit the
remark that the farther he went west the more con-
vinced he was that the wise men came from the east.

I have rather wandered from Young Green, and
been somewhat diffuse in the history of his father in
order to account for his excessive simplicity in the
matter of business in which it will appear he was
concerned, and hence I have adopted for him the
name of Very Green.

As nearly as I can tell, about the year 1834 Young
Green was in a wine-merchant’s counting-house, at
the West End of London. Being much of my own
age, fond of coaching, and distantly connected, we
were a good deal together, and thus I became ac-
quainted with the dilemma into which he quite unin-
tentionally led his father.

At the’ period I have referred to there were no
Civil Service competitive examinations, and men who
330 THE COACHING AGE.

 

had good interest only could get into excellent
Government situations. A pecuniary consideration,
sub rosa, frequently formed an important element in
obtaining an appointment ; but being illegal, the
transactions required to be conducted with great tact
and some mystery.

It happened that occasionally advertisements
appeared in the newspapers somewhat enigmatically
worded, but nevertheless sufficiently clearly intimat-
ing that the advertiser was in a position to obtain a
Government situation for anyone disposed to render
it worth his while.

A shady individual, who passed by the designation
of ‘Ension’—I forget the exact name—lived in
London, and, as his subsequent history disclosed,
seemed to subsist by getting hold of young men with
money, some of which he managed to obtain by
card-playing, gambling, bills of exchange, etc,
not omitting the plan of advertising in the. manner
I have mentioned, without, however, having the
slightest power to carry out his part of the bar-
gain.

Not having a very lucrative position as clerk in the
wine-merchant’s counting-house, Young Green was on
the look-out to what is usually called ‘ better himself,’
and thus he chanced to hit upon the Ensign’s ad-
vertisement in one of the daily papers. Perhaps it
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 331

 

is needless to say that it was highly coloured, and
held out very bright prospects to any young man
desirous of getting into a good permanent situation
under Government. Entertaining this opinion, Young
Green communicated with the Ensign, and eventually:
had an interview with him, when he made himself
thoroughly acquainted with the position of the
reverend parent, especially as to his ability to stump
up the amount which might be requisite to carry out
the transaction. A country clergyman with good
means, and living in a quiet little village upwards of
100 miles from London, where he had scarcely ever
been, was just the subject that the Ensign thought he
could operate upon, successfully : so he told young
Green that he was only acting for somebody else,
whose name he was not at liberty to divulge ; that
being a delicate matter, and one strictly of honour
between the parties, it was absolutely necessary for
him to have a personal interview with the reverend
gentleman, and that, therefore, Young Green had
better go down, represent all the circumstances, and
bring him up to town.

Feeling fully satisfied of the bond fides of the
Ensign, and highly pleased with the prospects verbally
exhibited by him, Young Green immediately adopted
the plan proposed.

In the year 1834 there was not any railway
332 THE COACHING AGE.

 

out of London, so that all the journey down to
his father’s had to be done by coach; and in order
not to lose any time, he started off the same night,
reaching his destination about mid-day following.
The little country parish was six miles or more from
any town, off the high-road, and consequently not a
very accessible place. Arrived there, however, the
whole story was told, inclading all the embellishments
of the wily Ensign. The reverend gentleman accord-
ingly was favourably impressed with it, and accom-
panied his son back to town, spending a whole day in
travelling by the coach.

A meeting with the Ensign was arranged, but
he did not intend to have any hunting in couples, so
he gave Young Green to understand that all that took
place must be strictly confidential, a matter of honour,
and it was indispensable that his interview with
the father should be quite private. Not suspecting
anything wrong, this was assented to, and the
meeting took place between the two only. Without
difficulty the Ensign submitted such a glowing de-
scription of the appointment, and the position it
would be for the son, that the reverend gentleman
agreed to the terms.

‘As this,’ said the Ensign, ‘is strictly a matter
of confidence and honour, and I am only acting
for somebody else, perhaps you will just give me
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 333

 

something that I may show him to prove that the
terms are agreed to ;’ and he produced what appeared
to be a small slip of paper, saying, ‘If you just
write across this “ Accepted,” and sign your name,
that will be sufficient.’

The reverend gentleman wrote on it as requested,
when the Ensign put it in his pocket, and politely took
leave of his companion, who returned to his son and
told him all that had taken place, concluding with
the facts respecting the paper. The son, who
was thoroughly acquainted with the nature of bills
of exchange, was horror-struck, as he at once saw
that his father had signed a paper which might
be converted into a bill of exchange amounting to as
much as he was worth, and that the document was in
the hands of a man of whom neither of them knew
anything, and who, for all that they knew to the
contrary, might be a swindler.

The poor old man was nearly frantic; but it
happened that he had a nephew practising as a
solicitor in town, so to him he went and told the whole
story. The nephew, not being conversant with
criminal law, immediately went to a Mr. Harmer
of Hatton Garden, at that time a noted Old Bailey
lawyer, whose services were generally secured by any
unhappy individual charged with a criminal offence,
and having the wherewithal to pay the fees. Mr.
334 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Harmer afterwards became the proprietor of the
Weekly Dispatch, and an alderman of the City of
London, and had a fine residence somewhere near
Greenhithe.

When the case of the Rev. Very Green had been
laid before Mr. Harmer, it appeared that the Ensign
was not a stranger to him, probably from his having
come in contact with him on similar occasions, as he
at once said the paper could be got back, but the
reverend gentleman would ‘ have to smart for it.’

The occurrence happened at the end of the week,
but there was: at that time no running home by an
express train to do duty in the country on Sunday
and return again early on Monday morning ; so the
poor old man was obliged to remain in town in a
state of mind more easily imagined than described.

In due course, however, the paper was, as predicted
by Mr. Harmer, got back, but not without smarting
for it considerably.

It only remained, then, for the reverend gentleman to
take his place inside the coach and travel back again
to his home.

Some time afterwards the Ensign sailed a little too
near the wind, and brought himself within the meshes
of the criminal law, as he was tried and convicted at
the Old Bailey for some offence of cheating or fraud,
and received a sentence which effectually precluded
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 335

 

him from having any further transactions with mem-
bers of the Green family.

Had railways been in existence in those days pro-
bably the Rev. Very Green would have travelled about
a little more, and become better acquainted with the
world and its ways; but his journey up to London
by coach was, I believe, the last he performed. At
all events, he never had such an expensive one
again.

As there is not much connected with coaching in
the preceding narrative, perhaps it comes in appro-
priately in a scratch team. The next is a strictly
coaching one, being a short biographical sketch of
a man who was somewhat notorious in coaching-
days.

The following account of him was given me by a
man connected with coaching who knew hira well,
and on the accuracy of whose information I can
rely:

Frederick Benson, at one time better known as
‘Benson Tagg,’ was a good singer and capital
ventriloquist, and was engaged in that capacity
at the Eagle Tavern, in the City Road, kept by a
man named Rouse, from whom was derived the ex-
pression common about London at that time of
‘Bravo, Rouse ! Probably when he got the engage-
ment at the Eagle, Benson assumed the name of Tage
336 THE COACHING AGE.

 

in addition to Benson, which was his proper name.
His language, by all accounts, seems to have been
something horrible, as (without giving me any spe-
cimens, which I had no desire to hear) my informant
in the course of conversation said, ‘ Well, we are all
sinners, but this man’s language was not fit for any
decent company.’

Not being satisfied with his position at the Eagle,
he seems to have taken to ‘starring it in the pro-
vinces,’ giving entertainments on his own account, at
which he sang, conjured, and gave instances of his
ventriloquial abilities; and among other places he
visited Saxmundham, a town on the London and
Yarmouth road. This was before the days when he
became connected with coaching ; but he was very
glad to avail himself of the assistance of the guard
of a coach, without whom his’ entertainment on one
occasion would probably have been a failure.

Benson had had some large bills circulated about
the town, announcing that Chang Laura, the cele-
brated Eastern conjurer (being, in fact, no other than
himself), would perform; also that there would be
singing and ventriloquism. The whole perform-
ance, set forth in very glowing terms, was to be
carried out entirely by himself, except as regarded the
music—and here was his difficulty.

He searched all over the town, but was unable to
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 337

 

find any local musical talent adapted to his require-
ments; and thus, as the hour for commencing the
entertainment drew near, he found he should most
likely have to get on as well as he could without
music, and that the success of the evening would
be entirely destroyed.

Fortunately, however, for him, an accident hap-
pened to the down night-coach from London, close to
Saxmundham; the perch broke, and the coach was
quite unable to proceed.

The guard, who was a good bugle-player, had to
wait in the town; so Benson, hearing of this, intro-
duced himself, and solicited his services with his
bugle, offering to remunerate him on his own terms.
The guard, while not unwilling to take a part, felt
rather diffident in presenting himself as the whole
of the orchestra, and inquired whether a performer on
some other instrument could not be procured to join
him—whether a harp, violin, or bass viol could not be
got? .But Benson related the endeavours he had been
making all day, and informed him of the impossibility
of procuring any second performer. a

Upon the two, accordingly, devolved the whole of
the evening’s performances, the guard doing the in-
strumental and Benson the vocal and other parts.

The audience were highly delighted throughout,
and the whole was a great success. It can’t be said

22
338 THE COACHING AGE.

 

that ‘the house’ was crowded, because the entertain-
ment was given in a large room at the Bell Inn—
but that was quite full. The guard was well paid,
and, curiously enough, some years after worked on
the same coach with Benson.

Having a fancy for some employment in connection
with coaches, Benson was in the habit of frequenting
the Bull and Mouth yard, and by some means or
other was one of the party at the annual coaching
dinner which Sherman, like other London large coach-
proprietors, used to give. These dinners, however,
were restricted to the coachmen and guards in the
proprietors’ service.

Probably from a knowledge of Benson’s singing and
ventriloquial talents, and his being a very good man
at a dinner-party, some guard or coachman obtained
leave to bring him.

Sherman was very much pleased with him at the
dinner, and becoming better acquainted with him, put
him on the ‘Union,’ a day-coach to Leicester, as
guard. The coach drew up at the Peacock at Isling-
ton every evening on its arrival in London, and
Benson was there with it on every alternate evening.
On one of these occasions, while he was standing
there, he saw two gentlemen driving by in a gig with
a dog tied underneath. Immediately there was a
most frightful yelping and yelling, as if the dog had
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 339

 

been run over. The gig was stopped, and the.
gentlemen got down and examined the dog, but
without detecting anything the matter with him; so
they patted him, got up into the gig, and drove on,
but had not gone fifty yards when, judging by the
hideous yelpings, the poor dog was again in dreadful
agony. ‘They again stopped, got down, and examined
him, when, it becoming known to the numerous by-
standers at the Peacock that. Benson had performed
the vocal part on behalf of the dog, they burst into:
shouts of laughter, amid which the gentlemen jumped:
up into the gig, and drove off. ®

After he took to coaching, Benson started a,
moustache, a most unusual thing in those days; but
perhaps. he did it’ in imitation of his master, Mr.
Sherman, who used to wear one. He left Sherman’s
service for two or three years, but returned to it, and
was guard on his Exeter ‘Subscription’ coach for
some time. ;

Hearing there was a guard wanted on the Exeter
‘Defiance,’ he got put on; and here no doubt the
exercise of his ventriloquial powers was a source of:
great amusement to his passengers, as in this
instance.

The coach stopped one Saturday night at a small
public-house, where a number of persons were sitting
in what was called the parlour, smoking. their pipes

22—2
340 THE COACHING AGE.

 

and enjoying themselves quietly, when Benson looked
in at the door, and said somebody had put a pig
into his hind-boot, and it was kicking up a precious
row. Pipes were at once laid down, and several
persons adjourned to the coach to see this noisy
specimen of the porcine tribe. Benson had got round
to the far side of the hind-boot, where he imitated
the squeaking and grunting of the pig most vigorously.
How to get a sight of the animal without letting him
escape seemed to puzzle the company, because as soon
as the hind-boot door was touched, or any attempt to
opgn it was made, the pig squealed louder than ever,
and was apparently endeavouring to push its way
out. This induced from the lookers-on various:
cautions, such as, ‘Take care!’ ‘Mind what you're
at’ ‘He'll get out and bolt!’ ete.

As the coach was just starting, Benson unlocked and
opened the door, when they said, ‘ Lor’, there bain’t
never no pig there !

Benson burst out laughing, slammed the boot door,
ran after the coach, and jumped up, greatly to the
amusement of his passengers.

He was a man of most violent temper, and cared
little on whom or what he vented it. One night he
got to the front of the coach somewhere near Basing-
stoke, and was hitting one of the wheelers with a
short chain. Whether he was on the footboard or
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 341

 

the splinter bar, or was kicked, is not known; but
his leg was broken, and he had to be taken into a
little inn close by, where he was laid up for some
months.

Thus ends Benson’s history as communicated to
me by a man personally acquainted with him ; but
curiously enough there came into this man’s hands
a small printed tract of some seven or eight pages,
containing an account of Benson as given by himself
from time to time during his last illness. At the
heading of the tract is a small picture of a stage-
coach, and it is called

‘THE PROFANE COACHMAN’S CONVERSION.’

I purpose only giving some portions of the tract
relating to the man’s history while connected with
coaching. To enter into the other parts of it would
be inappropriate and quite unconnected with the sub-
ject of this book.

It will be observed that Benson’s character as
given by himself quite agrees with that of my in-
formant. The tract runs as follows:

‘Mr. B. was the son of respectable parents in.
Yorkshire, who desired to train him to some useful
business. His love for horses, however, and the
temptations therewith connected, made him break
through all home restraints; and before he was
342 THE COACHING AGE.

 

twenty years old he became the driver of one of the
mails in the north of England, which was especially
noted for its fast travelling. For nearly twenty years
he was connected with the largest coaching establish-
ments, and usually went in and out of London, either
as coachman or guard. It may be well to mention
here that his figure was tall and commanding, his
countenance intelligent and prepossessing, and his
mental powers far above mediocrity. He had also
considerable talent for music, being known as the
best bugle-player on the road, besides which he had
a very fine voice, which was well cultivated. He also
excelled as a ventriloquist, and was in the habit of
giving public exhibitions in this character. During
the whole of this period of his life, and up to the
last three months, his liveliness, gaiety, and con-
sequent popularity were only exceeded by his reckless
impiety. He has mentioned that for many years he
had seldom spent less than from eight to twelve
shillings daily in the purchase of intoxicating liquors.
Thus, as might naturally be expected, a constitution
which appeared originally calculated to bear the
changes of a long life was worn out before he had
reached his prime. An accident which occurred near
Basingstoke when he was about forty years old laid
him aside for several weeks with a compound fracture ;
his recovery at that time was very doubtful, and he
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 343

 

never afterwards regained his former strength. With
bodily infirmity, irritability of temper and all its sad
consequences became painfully prominent in his
character ; so much so that (to use the words of one
well acquainted with him) if you did anything to
offend him there was nothing but to get out of his
way as fast as possible—whatever was near him was
sure to be dashed at the offender.

‘A gentleman who travelled with him not long
before his fatal sickness says: “He was commonly
called by his companions ‘Fred.’ He was indeed
extensively known, and his liberality and generosity
had gained him many friends. Fond of gay and
merry company, able to sing a good song, and
possessing a fund of good-humoured jokes, he was a
general favourite, though at times his language was
such as to shock the ears even of his most intimate
acquaintances. It is now somewhere about three
years since, seated by his side on the coach-box, I
took a journey with him along the road from Exeter
to Sidmouth ; and as the horses toiled up a tedious
hill, I was obliged to listen to his oft-repeated curses
upon them, and to witness the severe way in which
he punished the poor animals in order to quicken their
speed, wearied as they were with their long pull. I
could not refrain from seriously remonstrating with
him upon his conduct. He seemed to pay but little
344 THE COACHING AGE.

 

if any attention to what I said, and went on much
as before, apparently in a kind of sullen doggedness
of spirit, urging on his horses, regardless of my
expostulations.

‘* At length his health gave way altogether, and
when I first saw him he was the victim of advanced
consumption. I found him in the back parlour of an
inn, vainly seeking amusement and happiness in
reading novels of the worst description. I endeavoured
to bring every means to bear on the relief of his
sufferings, and I soon gained his entire confidence.
On my second visit I left a tract on his bed, which
he appeared to receive respectfully, though I heard
that he afterwards expressed himself as having felt
insulted; indeed, he was so angry and offended
at having a tract given to him, that he gnashed
his teeth in rage, and determined to tear it to pieces
directly I left the room.

‘Tn one of our conversations, speaking of himself,
he said: ‘I was one of the biggest blackguards that
ever stepped,’ which was one of his forcible expres-
sions.”

‘ The sufferings of poor B.,’ the narrative continues,
‘were varied and severe, and shortly afterwards
terminated his existence somewhere about the year
1845.

A curious circumstance happened to a man
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 345

 

named Fred Guyer, who was a guard on the
‘Wellington,’ a coach which ran from the Bull
and Mouth to Newcastle-on-Tyne. At the different
coaching-yards there was generally an odd man
or two about who would go on any little errands for
the guards or coachmen, and one of these was
employed by Guyer, who, having bought at York
what he was told was a wild fox, brought it up to
London, and sent it in a sack by the odd man at
the Bull and Mouth, to a man in Leadenhall Market,
to whom he sold it. The purchaser, however, had
not had it very long before he discovered that it was
evidently a tame fox, and he afterwards complained
that Guyer had sold him a tame instead of a wild
one.

At another time Guyer bought two more foxes,
having told the purchaser that he could get two
more, which the man said he would buy. They
were to be brought up in sacks, tied under the
hind axle-tree of the coach; but in the course of
the journey up, Guyer saw a fox running across a
field near the road, and called the attention of
the coachman and passengers to it, regretting at the
same time that there were not any hounds there that
they might seearun. It never occurred to Guyer that
this was one of his foxes; but on arriving at the
Bull and Mouth he found only one, and it reminded
346 THE COACHING AGE.

 

him of the fox he had seen running across the field,
which was one of his own escaped. The other,
however, was to be sent to Leadenhall ; and in order
that there might be no complaint of its being tame,
like the one previously purchased, the plan was
adopted of giving it several cuts with a stick while
in the bag, which had the desired effect, as when
taken out in the purchaser’s room, it bolted all about
the place, and fully established its character for wild-
ness.

These foxes were conveyed without causing any
quarrel or dispute with anyone ; but it was otherwise
with a gentleman who was going down grouse-shoot-
ing by the Leeds‘ Courier’ from the Belle Savage, and
had his dog on the footboard with him. The coach
was driven between Northampton and Nottingham by
two men, Dick Evans and Bob Bennett, one up and
the other down. Bennett was a rough, uncouth sort
of man, and when the coach came down, and he saw
the dog on the footboard, he asked whose it was.
‘Mine,’ said the gentleman, who was a captain.
Bennett said he wasn’t going to let the dog be there,
and he’d have it off; when the captain let him
understand that if he interfered with the dog in any
way he’d give him a thrashing. Somehow or other,
when they got to Loughborough, matters came to
a crisis, and they had a set-to. Bennett was floored
THE SCRATCH TEAM. 347

 

three times in succession as soon as he got up, when
he ran into the house and expressed his willingness
to do anything the captain wished rather than be
punished any more. The captain said he should not
go on with the coach until Bennett had apologized,
which he was only too ready to do, as advised by the
proprietor, to whom he had appealed for protec-
tion.

One of the guards on this coach was the first
to take a newspaper containing the news of the
passing of the Reform Bill into Leeds, where he sold
it for a guinea, and two others he sold in Nottingham
on his way down for ten shillings each.

I think I have now started a scratch team of four
stories, which I can safely assert have never been
put together before.
CHAPTER XVII.
BRISTOL COACHING INNS.

BRISTOL was a great place for coaches ; being connected
extensively with the shipping-trade, the arrivals and
departures of persons engaged in mercantile business
were numerous. Devonport, Plymouth, Manchester,
Liverpool, and many large manufacturing towns,
had direct and considerable communication with
Bristol, so it is not surprising to find that there were
three or four large coaching inns in the town, carry-
ing on a brisk and active business. Perhaps it
would be difficult to know to which the first place
should be assigned, or which carried on the largest
business; but in coaching, the inns that had the
mails generally found that they drew other pas-
sengers to the establishment.

In Bristol the inn from which the London mail
started was the Bush, Townsend being the proprietor.
Many other coaches also went from it.

The next in amount of coaching business, I should
BRISTOL COACHING INNS. 349

 

say, was the White Lion, of which Isaac Niblett, a
large coach-proprietor, was the owner. It is now
converted into a joint-stock company’s hotel, and so
altered that I doubt if it could be identified either
externally or internally with the old inn, which was
formerly kept by Sir Thomas Lawrence’s father, who
afterwards removed to the Bear at Devizes, where he
failed. This was his last speculation in hotel-keeping,
which ruined him, and consequently people used to
say, ‘It was not the Lion but the Bear that eat him
up.’

There was also the Plume of Feathers, from which
some coaches ran, but not so many as from the two
inns I have mentioned.

Another large coaching inn, which, although I
mention it last, was not, I suppose, the least, perhaps
remains more in the condition it was in during
coaching-days than any of the others. If any inn is
entitled to the appellation of old, this certainly is.
It has been carried on under its present name for
nearly a century and a half; but there are records of
its having been an inn for some two or three cen-
turies previously. I think the old coaching bill,
setting forth the coaches that used to start from it,
should not be omitted. It is as follows :
350 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Rummer Horet.
Royal Mail and General Coach Office, High Street, Bristol.

John Bland begs most respectfully to return his sincere th
to his friends and the public for the very liberal support
which they have been pleased to favour him, and also to d
their attention to the following list of

CoACHES AND VANS

which leave the above office, at very reduced fares, assuring t
that no exertion on his part shall be wanting to merit a
tinuance of that decided preference which he has hitherto
perienced.

Birmingham Royal Mail, every evening at 7.30 o’clock.*

Gloucester 4 rs 4 5

Tewkesbury 3 a a

Worcester 3 3 3 5

‘Bromsgrove ee 3 4

Manchester and Liverpool Royal Mail, avai evening at
o’clock.

The above mail arrives in Birmingham in time for the first-
train to Manchester and Liverpool at six a.m.

London (no fees).—The New Company’s elegant light :
inside post-coaches, every morning at half-past six o’clock,
the Castle and Ball, Bath, at eight o’clock, to the New W
Horse Cellar and Bull and Mouth, St. Martin’s-le-Grand, at
past eight o’clock in the evening.

Fares—inside, £1 16s. ; outside, 18s.

Dine at the King’s Head, Thatcham, 2s. 6d. a head.

 

* Of this mail I have a vivid recollection, as on it I passec
first night’s travelling I had in my life; but it was in the opp
direction, being from Birmingham to Bristol. The direct Bi
and Liverpool mail was put on a few years afterwards, anc
not go by way of Birmingham, but through Monmouth, Here
Ludlow, and Shrewsbury.
BRISTOL COACHING INNS. 35%

 

Route—Bath, Chippenham, Calne, Marlborough, Newbury, and
Reading.

London (no fees)—New Company’s night-coach, every after-
noon at half-past one o’clock, and the Castle and Ball, Bath, to
the New White Horse Cellar, and Gerrard’s Hall, Basing Lane,
early the following morning.

Fares—inside, £1 4s. ; outside, 14s.

Supper at the King’s Head, Thatcham, with tea or coffee, 2s. a
head.

Route—same as day-coach. Luggage allowed to each passenger
—inside, fifty pounds ; outside, thirty pounds.

KS” Booking-offices in London—Gerrard’s Hall, Basing Lane ;
Bull and Mouth, St. Martin’s-le-Grand ; and White Horse Cellar,
Piccadilly.

Exeter, Plymouth, and Devonport.—‘ Nonpareil,’ mornings at
seven o'clock,

Kes” The proprietors flatter themselves this coach will be found
on trial one of the best conveyances in the kingdom. It changes
horses at very short stages, and stops at the first-rate houses on
the road. Coachmen of approved skill and character have been
selected for it, and the arrangements altogether are of the very
first description.

Barnstaple.—‘ The Western Hero,’ mornings at eight o'clock,
arriving at Pearce’s Fortescue Hotel at seven o’clock in the
evening, Same coach and coachmen throughout.

The hours at which this coach has been arranged to leave both
ends are particularly calculated to suit the convenience of the
mercantile world. Every possible attention has been paid in the
arrangements to make it deserving of public patronage.

MORNINGS. AFTERNOONS.
Marlborough 6.30 1.30
Newbury - is ne
Reading - - - - 9 is
352 THE COACHING AGE.

 

MORNINGS,
Exeter ‘Nonpareil’ 7.0 Honiton ‘Magnet’ - 8.30
Plymouth ,, 5 Wells i - Boks
Devonport ,, - ‘3 Langport ,, - ij
Cheltenham ‘Favourite’ 9.45 Ilminster ,, - ni
Gloucester 8 99 Alcester (opposition
Worcester 55 “5 coach*)  - 9.0
Oxford 3 5 Poole ‘Phoenix’ - 6.45
Hereford ‘Tiger’ = gy Minehead ‘Speculator’- 9.0
Ross ao 3 Bridgewater _,, a gy
Sarum ‘Star’ - - 8.30 Stowey 3 a
Weston-super-Mare ‘Vic- Cannington _,, -
toria’ 9.0 Williton i - 4
Southampton ‘Star’ 8.30 Washford 8 5
AFTERNOONS.
Bridgewater ‘John o’Groat’ 3.30 Weston-s.-Mare ‘Magnet’ 4.0
Taunton 3 5 Clevedon ‘Thistle’ ss
EVENINGS.
Manchester ‘Criterion ’ 7.30
Liverpool % - - - 4
Chester _ - .
MORNINGS.
Teignmouth ‘Nonpareil’ 7.0 Dawlish ‘Nonpareil’ 7.0
Torquay a5 r Warminster ‘Star’ ij
AFTERNOONS.
Frome ‘Pilot’ - - 2.45 Calne ‘Hope’ 3.45
Chippenham ‘Dove’ - ,, Devizes ,, - 3.15

Spring-vans at waggon prices.

Great Western Railway—fly-vans daily from Bland’s Ware-
house, Broadmead.

The following is the time of the arrival and departure of the

 

* The above coach is the only direct conveyance without change
of coach or coachman on the road.
BRISTOL COACHING INNS. 353

 

vans: Start from Bristol at two o’clock, afternoons ; arriving at
the Bull and Mouth, St. Martin’s-le-Grand, London, in twenty-eight
hours. Start from the Bull and Mouth, evenings, at seven o'clock ;
arriving in Bristol the following night at eleven o’clock.

Birmingham Fly Van—every afternoon, at half-past four o’clock,
to Haine’s and Bland’s Van Office, Moor Street, Birmingham, in
twenty-eight hours. Leaves Birmingham, every afternoon, at
half-past seven o’clock, in connection with the Grand Junction
Railways, for goods to all parts of the north.

Gloucester and Cheltenham Van —every afternoon, at four
o’clock, to Haine’s Coach and Van Office, High Street, Cheltenham,
in thirteen hours. Leaves Cheltenham, every afternoon, at four
o’clock.

Oxford Van—every afternoon, at half-past four o’clock, to
Beeseley’s Office, Jesus College Lane, in one day.

Manchester and Liverpool, and all parts of the north, at twelve
o'clock.

Spring vans and waggons may be always engaged for the
removal of furniture and luggage to any part of the kingdom.

Mourning-coaches, hearses, etc.
JOHN BLAND,

Proprietor.

One of the fly vans in the above list to London,
it will be seen, went to the Bull and Mouth, kept by
Sherman ; and an old sharing account shows what was
the rate of earnings per mile in one of these concerns.
It will be sufficient to quote the totals without setting
out in detail the daily earnings up and down.

The name of Bland does not appear in the account,
but that of Lush—well-known as a carrier in the
West of England in a large way of business—does. It

23
354 THE COACHING AGE.

 

might have happened that Sherman was working one
van concern with Bland and another with Lush,
in like manner as he worked several coaches on the
same road with different sets of partners, whose
principal object it always was to run to a proprie-
tor’s house in London having a large connection.

SETTLEMENT OF VANS, Fourteen DAYS, DUE 27TH JUNE, 1837.

Shares.

£ sd. M. £ sd.

Receipts 119 15 8 | Mr. Sherman 36 18 12 0
Disbursements 56 28 | Mr. Hammond 294° 15 31
———— | Mr. Hunt 22 ll 74

Divided by 123 miles 63 13 0 | Mr. Lush 352 18 87
at 10s. 4d. Sur- —_——_
plus, 2s. 63 11 0

The sharing in a van concern was totally different
from that of a coach, so that one cannot well be com-
pared with the other with a view of seeing which paid
best ; but the wear and tear of the stock working vans
would be much less, according to the well-known
adage that ‘ It’s the pace that kills.’ Horses for working
in vans, too, would not be so expensive in the
first instance, very likely, as those required for the
fast and fashionable day-coaches. What were called
the ‘Fly Vans,’ however, did not travel all the
way at a walking-pace, like the old broad-wheeled
waggons, and hence the appellation of fly vans. It
will have been noticed that in Bland’s advertisement
BRISTOL COACHING INNS. 355

 

sheet they are stated to occupy a period of twenty-
eight hours only in performing the journey from Bristol
to London, so that with their stoppages on the road
—which must have taken a considerable time for
changing horses and loading and unloading goods—
they must, when in actual motion, have travelled
at the rate of five or six miles an hour; and I
don’t suppose the broad-wheeled waggon exceeded
four, if, indeed, it did so much.

The proprietors did not lay themselves out for
the conveyance of passengers by the broad-wheeled
waggon ; if they did carry any for a remuneration,
and the pace exceeded four miles an hour, they were
liable to the duty. for carrying passengers, which
it would have been scarcely worth their while to pay,
and there were plenty of persons on the look-out to
inform against them if they carried passengers without
a license.

Among the things one used to see on the old roads
were these indispensable and most useful ponderous
broad-wheeled waggons, with their teams of eight orten
horses ; they conveyéd the greater part of the goods
which were too large and heavy even for the night-
coaches. The trade, however, was only partially
carried on by them where there was water-carriage,
either by barges or canal boats, running almost
parallel with the road. For removal of furniture the

23—2
356 THE COACHING AGE.

 

stage-waggon was generally brought into requisition,
there being in those days none of the furniture-remov-
ing vans of ‘which there is now an ample supply
almost everywhere, and which from their internal
arrangements obviate so much of the packing that
was absolutely necessary for goods. carried in the
stage-waggon. Added to these increased advantages
in packing, is the comfort derived from the speedy
transmission of furniture, the vans, whenever the
goods have to be carried a long distance, such as
seventy or eighty miles, or more, being put on a
railway truck, and moved the whole distance in the
course of the night; whereas by the stage-waggon,
travelling about four miles an hour or less, with
stoppages of a day and a night, and proportionately
longer times according to the distance, a journey of
equal length would occupy in many cases more than
a, week.

For heavy goods, but not of the most bulky
description, a species of intermediate conveyance
existed in the shape of Pickford’s vans, which
travelled at a trotting pace with four horses, but
did not carry any passengers. They were much the
same shape as an omnibus, but considerably larger,
and in addition to being filled inside with packages,
carried some on the top. Vehicles of this description
ran upon a good many roads.
CHAPTER XVIII.
ACCIDENTS.

How accidents to coaches sometimes occurred through
what I will charitably call the indiscretion of the
coachman, the following narrative will sufficiently
show. I would first observe that from the constant
stoppages, not only at the end of the different stages,
but also at numerous intermediate public-houses, in
the days when, comparatively speaking, no coaches
were fast, the coachman was in a state of almost
continuous imbibition from the commencement to the
termination of his journey.

Invitations to ‘take something’ were given to
him by some of the passengers whenever the coach
stopped, in addition to some probably before starting,
and thus it cannot be wondered at if he became
reckless in his driving, or incapable of managing his
horses.

An old coachman on the North road, who used
to drive from London down to the village of Red-
bourn, four miles beyond St. Albans, and remain
358 THE COACHING AGE.

 

there until the up-coach from Birmingham arrived in
the evening, when he drove it up to London, had a
long day on his hands at the quiet little place where
there was nothing either to occupy or amuse him.
How were the many hours he would have to remain
waiting for the up-coach to be disposed of ?

The place being a great thoroughfare on the road
to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester,
Nottingham, Sheffield, etc., the mails to those places,
with many other coaches, changed horses there, and
it might be called a depdt for horses and horse-
keepers, consequently the inhabitants consisted
chiefly of publicans, and a few small shopkeepers
and trddesmen. Many other coachmen stopped
there, but none so long as himself, as the coach he
drove was the first down in the morning, and the
last up at night, and at first he felt the vacant time
a great inconvenience. Eventually, however, he got
over this, as it happened that he made some acquaint-
ances in the neighbourhood, and amongst them a
farmer who was one of Lord Verulam’s tenants.
From this person he received an invitation to dinner,
which he accepted, and we give his own account of
how the day was spent. After the cloth was re-
moved the bottle was circulated, and he failed to
perceive that the good old port, of which his host
was by no means sparing, was likely to make an
ACCIDENTS. 359

 

impression on him, The farmer wishing, as he sup-
posed, to mark the favour he considered the coach-
man had done him by partaking of his hospitality,
and knowing that his time for returning to London
was approaching, finished the entertainment with
two bottles of excellent claret, requesting the coach-
man not to hurry himself, as he would drive him
in his own gig to Redbourn, a distance of little
more than a mile. Nothing loth, as the coachman
said, he followed the suggestion, and swallowed glass
after glass with considerable gusto. Hethen got into
the gig which was waiting at the door, but soon
became conscious that he had overstepped the bounds
of prudence; he was, however, in full possession of
his senses, and had no fear of being unable to keep
his balance. |

Arriving at the inn at Redbourn where the coach
changed horses, he found the horses put to, and the
passengers all seated. The proprietor, who lived
there, looked very serious, and the coachman who
had brought the coach up was standing by his side,
with an ominous smile upon his face.

Considering silence most discreet, without saying a
word he took hold of the reins, and mounted without
any difficulty, determined, as he thought, to be
doubly particular and careful. According to the
usual arrangement, he pulled up at St. Albans for a
360 THE COACHING AGE.

 

minute or two, but was sufficiently wide awake not
to get off the box, being, as he said, afraid to trust
himself, as he began to feel more and more the effects
of the quantity, as well as the quality, of the wine
he had taken. They then proceeded very steadily
and well to the top of Ridge Hill, a long hill about
half-way between St. Albans and Barnet; and from
thence, the worst part of the stage being over, the
horses were accustomed to go the last four miles at
a faster pace, consequently. he put them on a little,
and passing through the turnpike gate at South
Mimms, and being all very fresh (including himself),
he thought they would like a gallop, so after leaving
the village, and going down a little descent on to a
part of the road called the Wash, he sprang them.

He did not say when this occurred, but it must have
been very many years since, and when he was quite a
young man, as among the many improvements made
in the Holyhead road was diverting it from the Wash,
so as to avoid the dangers and delays occasioned by
the floods which occasionally occurred there, and
gave the locality its name.

To continue the narrative of the coachman who
had just sprung his horses. The fence on his off-side
being very high, he didn’t observe the Manchester
‘Cobourg’ coach coming round the corner at about
eight or nine miles an hour; he himself was going at
LYUNHNN GadM TILLS LVS OHM SHHONASS Vd

dur queY uel Al 3° De ssebanyg fc

 
ACCIDENTS. 361

 

about double that pace. Just before the coaches got
to the turn they met ; his leaders flew out of the road
in an instant, and over a small ditch on to a bank by
a lodge with a white gate leading to a house then
occupied by the Duke of Leeds. The carriage-road
extended from the lodge into the turnpike road, and
was marked by two white posts. Inside the first his
horses passed, but the sudden jerk in crossing the
ditch threw him off. He lay on his back in the
road, and for a moment saw the coach falling on him ;
but the body of the coach having struck the post,
and the hind wheel having spanned the ditch, it
righted, and with the force from the rate they were
going at broke down the other post, regained the
road in safety, and the horses were stopped just as
they reached the bridge over the Wash—a most
miraculous escape, as he said, for him.

The passengers who sat still were unhurt ; but one
gentleman in jumping off the hind part of the coach
sprained his ankle, and, suffering from pain and fright,
insisted upon being conveyed to London in a post-
chaise. One or two others accompanied him, at
which the coachman said he could not help observing
that there was generally one troublesome customer
among the passengers when anything occurred, and
he was always sure to be a member of the legal
profession. Altogether, he thought himself well off
362 THE COACHING AGE.

 

in having only to pay for the post-chaise, and the
injury done to the off-leader of the Manchester
‘Cobourg,’ his shoulder having been lacerated to
such an extent as to render him useless by coming
in contact with the other coach.

Altogether, the coachman said this indiscretion on
his part cost him twenty pounds, an inconsiderable
sum compared with what might have happened ; but
it was sufficient to make him resolve never to run
such a risk again, a resolution to which in his long
subsequent connection with coaching he strictly
-adhered.

Probably this was the reason of his not meeting
with any other accident, in consequence of which he
acquired the confidence of the proprietors and the
public ; and in this he said he considered himself
very fortunate, accidents being frequent. Two of them
he witnessed—one to the Manchester ‘Cobourg,’ the
other to the Liverpool ‘Umpire; and of the former
he gave this account :

On the up-journey between Redbourn and St.
Albans he met the ‘Cobourg,’ the driver of which,
aman named Foster, kept on the wrong side of the
road to avoid the gravel, which was so heaped up as
to raise the middle of the road to an unnecessary
height. The ‘Cobourg’ was heavily loaded on the
top with luggage as well as passengers, so much so
ACCIDENTS. 363

 

as to raise the centre of gravity above its proper
position ; and although he kept on his wrong side in
order that Foster might not have to cross, the latter
being unaware of his intention endeavoured to do
so, when the coach swayed over on the off-side, and
fell with a loud noise, which, he said, reminded him
of his own overturn in Bere Forest, of which, by-
and-by, I must give his own account, merely ob-
serving here that it occurred prior to his collision
with the ‘Cobourg’ at South Mimms, and so does
not show that he had broken through his resolution
formed after that event.

The upsetting of the ‘ Cobourg’ was early in the
evening, and in moonlight. Fortunately no one was
hurt; the only cries heard were those of a woman
bewailing the loss of her child. It had been in her
arms fast asleep, and she had been sitting on the
off-side of the roof when the coach went over; and
then it could not be found.

Fearing the child might be under the coach, they
made every exertion to get it up; but before they
could manage this, had to undo the luggage-straps,
and get the loading off the roof. This, together with
getting the coach up, was soon accomplished ; but
luckily there was no child, for had it been there it
must have been completely crushed.

Presently some one thought he heard a feeble
364 THE COACHING AGE.

 

ery, and on looking round he saw the bundle of white
clothes in which‘the child was enveloped lying under
the fence or hedge. The rush of the distracted
mother, and the joy with which she clasped her child
in her arms, the coachman said had never been erased
from his memory.

Seeing that there was no further harm done, and
that the ‘Cobourg’ people had only to reload their
coach, he wished them ‘ Good-night,’ and proceeded
with his own coach on his journey up to London.

Of the accident to the Liverpool ‘Umpire,’ the
old coachman gave this account :

It occurred in the winter, when, owing to an
obstruction in the road below Dunstable, occasioned
by a heavy fall of snow, four or five coaches started
together from Redbourn. They all went at a pretty
good pace—not racing*—and passing each other only
at the different changes.

In this way they proceeded to the Green Man at
Finchley, where they pulled up, and of course,
according to the almost universal custom, had some-

* There was not much racing in the ordinary pace of the
‘Umpire,’ as it was timed at less than eight miles an hour, being
allowed just ten hours more than the mail; but on the‘ Umpire’s’
time-bill was this curious note: ‘If the time is not strictly kept
(accidents excepted), the passengers are particularly requested not:
to give the coachman and guard their usual perquisite.’ I pre-

sume that no coachman or guard ever showed a time-bill to a
passenger.
ACCIDENTS. 365

 

thing to drink. He then fancied that a man named
‘Humpy,’ either from the name of the coach he
drove (the ‘Umpire’), or from a hump on his back,
had already had some glasses too many, as he was
very noisy. ;
The journey being resumed again, the two Man-
chester coaches started first, followed by the ‘ Umpire,’
Humpy shouting and hallooing at the top of his
voice, as, indeed, he had been doing almost all the
way from St. Albans. So suspecting something
would happen, the old coachman kept behind ; and
on going up the hill out of the bottom, he could
just. see one of the three coaches close to the fence
opposite a public-house called the Bald-faced Stag.
On reaching the spot he saw a coach lying on its
side, the luggage scattered all about the road, the
fore-part of the coach broken, and a perfect wreck,
but the horses standing quietly. He pulled up, and
proceeded a few yards on foot with some of the
people from the public-house. He then found that
the coach was the Liverpool ‘Umpire.’ Some of the
passengers were bewailing their bruises, and others
swearing and condemning the conduct of Humpy,
who lay on his back in the road, perfectly helpless,
like a large black beetle, moaning and groaning most
hideously, and certainly more injured than anyone
else. Being unable to stand, they carried him into
366 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the public-house. A doctor was soon in attendance,
who considered it best that Humpy, in accordance
with his own wish, should be taken home as soon as
possible; therefore, as the coach from Redbourn
passed his lodgings in St. John’s Street, he was put
into it, leaving his horses and the disabled ‘ Umpire’
coach to the care of the guard, some of the passengers
riding up with the Redbourn coach, which deposited
Humpy safely at his home. He ultimately recovered,
and resumed his seat on the box, notwithstanding his
gross misconduct, but he always went hopping to the
end of his days. Some part of the coach had fallen
upon him, and dislocated, or materially injured, his
hip-joint. The real cause of the accident was
supposed to be his having his leaders’ reins wrongly
placed between his fingers, which was done when
he took them from his box-passenger in his hurry to
start without properly arranging them. In going
round the bend in the road by the Bald-faced Stag,
when he found himself too near the fence, he pulled
the wrong rein, which caused his leaders to hug the
fence, and the front wheel striking against it, over-
turned the coach into the road.

In order to guard against the probability of an
accident occurring from the coachman taking the
reins in wrong order from the box-passenger, a
gentleman who frequently rode with the old coach-
ACCIDENTS. 367

 

man used, on returning him the reins when he got
up again, to separate them, and say, ‘ There are your
leaders, and there are your wheel- horses.’ |

As I have referred to the accident which happened
in Bere Forest to the old coachman, I will give his
account of it, and some other recollections of his
coaching-days.

It happened, he said, that when he was driving on
the Portsmouth road, there were two other day-
coaches on it; but as they left Portsmouth at different
hours, there was no fear of their coming in contact.
With the down-coaches it was different, as from their
leaving London by different routes, and from other
circumstances, such as stopping or not stopping to
dine, they would sometimes in the middle of the
journey all get together, as they did one day when,
on returning, he overtook the other coaches at the
Anchor Inn at Liphook, where they changed horses
and dined. The coachmen asked him what time he
intended to get to Portsmouth that evening, to
which he replied, ‘Much about the same as usual,’
and he then left. They also were ready to start;
and while he was changing horses about half a mile
farther down the village, they passed at a good
swinging pace, looking round as much as to say,
‘Come along! Having a team of four nearly
thoroughbred horses, he was soon after them, and
368 THE COACHING AGE.

 

saw his two opponents, one a little in advance of
the other, fully a mile ahead, and apparently going
very fast; so he immediately put his horses into a
gallop, and the road being rather narrow in places,
he began to consider where it would afford him a
good opportunity to pass them.

He overtook the ‘ Regulator’ first of all, as it was
going up the hill out of the village of Rake, and
passed it easily; the other coach, called the ‘ Hero,’
he could see about half a mile before him, and
knowing he had the best team, he followed at full
speed. Being lightly loaded, the only passenger, a
soldier, at the back of the coach, was tossed up
and down like a shuttlecock from a battledore, so_
that the old coachman continually looked back to
see if he kept his place.

At the top of Sheet Hill he overtook the ‘ Hero,’
and they went down the hill side by side; and when
near the bottom they met a post-chaise, the driver of
which stared with astonishment, and pulled into the
bank to let them pass.

A turnpike being just ahead, the old coachman
pulled in a bit, or, as he said, he did not know what
the consequences might have been ;' but knowing the
horses in the ‘ Hero’ must be nearly beaten, he looked
for a place on the opposite hill, where he thought he
could easily pass. On reaching the hill his leaders
“MNVG daaLS VdN WHHI ONIAINUC SURHAVAT SSOUOV SAHSHOH SIH dH TINd
dun qweyuey “AY ep ssab.mjg ¢

 
ACCIDENTS. 369

 

were by the front wheel of the ‘ Hero,’ when the driver
pulled his horses right across the old coachman’s
leaders’ heads, driving them up a steep bank in which
the off fore-wheel of his coach stuck ; fortunately for
him, no strap, trace or buckle was broken; but the
delay prevented his getting beyond the hind-boot of
the ‘ Hero,’ when it stopped at Petersfield. Accord-
ing to the watch of a gentleman on the box, the
distance of eight miles had been done in a few
seconds over twenty minutes.

The correctness of this, however, I take the liberty
of doubting, inasmuch as it far surpasses any of the
times of coaches on the first of May, when they
performed some extraordinary feats in order to see
the shortest time in which they could accomplish their
journeys ; but none of them got up even to twenty
miles an hour, while the pace of the ‘Hero’ and its
opponent is said to have been twenty-four. Three of
the horses in the ‘Hero’ never came out of the
stable again.

The only result, however, of this race between the
two coaches was a complaint by the proprietors to
the coachmen. The occurrence, like many others
of a similar kind, was remembered only as an extra-
ordinary feat, and,things went on pretty well till
the middle or latter end of January, when there was
a rime frost, accompanied by a thick fog, which

24
370 THE COACHING AGE.

 

increased as the evening advanced, and the coach
entered the Bere Forest. The coachman’s atten-
tion being diverted by the continual conversation
of his box passenger, all at once he found the coach
off its balance on his side, and to restore it he whipped
the off-wheel horse, when he heard, as he described it,
a noise like the report of a cannon, and found himself
on his back in the road. He jumped up in an
instant, and soon sufficiently recovered his senses to
find that he was not hurt, but the coach was upset.

There were four young ladies inside, all of one
party, sound asleep when the accident occurred,
and they innocently asked what was the matter;
not, however, in the language of the Quaker, who,
under somewhat similar circumstances, wishing to
know if anything was wrong with the harness,
inquired: ‘Aileth the leather conveniency any-
thing ?

After extricating the ladies, and getting the horses
disentangled, three of them were left in charge of
the box passenger who had unwittingly caused the
mishap, while the coachman went off on the fourth
to procure assistance, which he obtained at a place
about a mile and a half distant, and returned to the
scene of the accident with three or four labourers and
a strong cart-rope, to find, however, that the coach
had been got up again, and the ladies were inside,
ACCIDENTS. 371

 

only waiting for the horses to be put to, that they
might resume their journey.

In one part of the forest were a number of gipsies,
who, it seemed, had gone to the spot where the
prostrate coach was, and had got it up again. After
thanking the assembled group of men, women and
children, the coach proceeded, being only about an
hour late.

Ruminating on the accident as the journey was
resumed, it struck the old coachman that he had
neglected to reward the good people who had so
promptly and efficiently assisted him in his trouble ;
but when he came to unload the hind-boot, he found
that he need have been under no uneasiness on that
score, as, anticipating his forgetfulness in the hurry
of getting off, the gipsies had rewarded themselves
with two or three baskets of game which had been
taken up at Liphook, considering probably that
pheasants and hares would be a greater treat to
themselves than to the persons to whom the baskets
were addressed.

The old coachman said this accident had qualified
him for the service of one of the oldest coach-
proprietors in London, whose maxim it was never to
employ a man who had not had an upset at some
time, for this reason—not having had such an experi-
ence, he would not know how to get a coach up again.

24—2
372 THE COACHING AGE,

 

It might also, perhaps, have the effect of making
the driver more careful in future, especially if the
accident had occurred through negligence or reck-
lessness.

An account of a mail accident arising from fog, but
on another road, and nearer London, is given by Mr.
C. Ward, who was an eye-witness, and relates it to
show some of the difficulties that had to be encountered
in foggy weather. He says: ‘We were obliged to
be guided out of London by torches, seven or eight
mails following one after the other, the guard of the.
foremost mail lighting the one following, and so
on till the last. We travelled at a slow pace like
a funeral procession. Many times I have been three
hours going from London to Hounslow. I remember
one very foggy night, instead of arriving at Bagshot (a
distance of thirty miles from London, and my
destination) at eleven o'clock, I did not get there
till one in the morning. I had to leave again at four
the same morning. On my way back to town, when
the fog was very bad, I was coming over Hounslow
Heath, when I reached the spot where the old powder-
mills used to stand. I saw several lights in the road,
and heard voices which induced me to stop. The
old Exeter mail, which left Bagshot thirty minutes
before I did, had met with a singular accident. It
was driven by aman named Gambier ; his leaders had
ACCIDENTS. 373

 

come in contact with a hay-cart on its way to London,
which caused them to turn suddenly round, break the
pole, and blunder down a steep embankment, at the
bottom of which was a narrow deep ditch, filled with
water and mud. The mail-coach pitched on the
stump of a willow-tree that overhung the ditch ; the
coachman and outside passengers were thrown over
into the meadow beyond, and the horses went into
the ditch. The unfortunate wheelers were drowned
or smothered in the mud. There were two inside
passengers, who were extricated with some difficulty ;
but fortunately no one was injured. I managed
to take the passengers with the guard and mail-bags
on to London, leaving the coachman to wait for
daylight before he could make an attempt to get the
mail up the embankment. They endeavoured to
accomplish this with cart-horses and chains. They
had nearly reached the top of the bank, when some-
thing gave way, and the poor old mail went back
into the ditch again. I shall never forget the scene.
There were about a dozen men from the powder-mills
trying to render assistance, and with their black faces,
each bearing a torch in his hand, they presented
a curious spectacle. This happened about 1840.
Posts and rails were erected at the spot after the
accident. I passed the place in 1870; they were
there still, as well as the old pollard-willow stump.’
374 THE COACHING AGE.

 

He also recounts another incident arising fro1
heavy fog, but unattended with anything in the v
of an accident.

‘T recollect a singular circumstance occasioned
a fog. There were eight mails that- passed throt
Hounslow—the Bristol, Bath, Gloucester, and Str
took the right-hand road from Hounslow ; the Exe
Yeovil, Poole, and ‘“ Quicksilver,” Devonport (wh
was the one I was driving), went the straight r
towards Staines. We always saluted each ot
when passing with “Good-night, Bill,” “ Dick,”
“ Harry,” as the case might be. I was once pass
a mail, mine being the fastest, and gave my won
salute. A coachman named Downs was driving
Stroud mail. He instantly recognised my voice, ¢
said, “ Charley, what are you doing on my roa
It was he, however, who had made the mistake ;
had taken the Staines instead of the Slough road |
of Hounslow. We both pulled up immediately ;
had to turn round and go back, which was a f
attended with much difficulty in such a fog. Hac
not been for our usual salute, he would not h:
discovered his mistake before arriving at Staines.’

While accidents were frequently attended w
serious consequences to the passengers, the sa
results were generally experienced by the propriet«
especially if the accident arose from any carelessn
ACCIDENTS. 375

 

or want of skill on the part of their coachmen, or
any cause which reasonable attention or foresight
might have prevented, such as defective harness, or
weak or improper condition of any part of the
coaches.

One instance in which the proprietors had to smart
considerably was the accident which happened to
the Leeds ‘ Express,’ a coach running from the Bull
and Mouth, St. Martin’s-le-Grand, to Leeds, in op-
position to the ‘ Courier,’ a coach which also ran to
Leeds, but started from the Belle Sauvage, on Ludgate
Hill. Some distance down in the country, and
towards the Leeds end of the journey, the ‘Courier’
stopped at the bottom of a hill for the guard to take
the drag off, when the ‘ Express,’ coming round the
corner, and probably endeavouring to pass before the
‘Courier’ started again, by some means was upset.
One of the passengers, a woman, was killed on the
spot, while another had a leg broken, and was laid up
for more than twelve months.

In those days there was a law by which a deodand
or fine was laid upon the cause of death in cases of
accident, and in this instance it was upon the coach.
Altogether, the accident caused the proprietors a loss
of no less a sum than fourteen hundred pounds;
but opposition coaches, especially if the opposition
was strong, were frequently very expensive, as
376 THE COACHING AGE.

 

independently of running at very low, often ruinously
low, fares, the wear and tear of the stock was very
great.

' To narrate anything like all the accidents which
befell the coaches throughout the kingdom, even if
one possessed the requisite information, would be
very tedious for one’s readers, without, so far as I.
am aware, any counterbalancing advantage; so I
will only mention two more—one was very serious,
and relates to two of the mails; the other, as to the
circumstances which followed the accident, partakes
rather of comedy.

In the accident. to the mails, the Holyhead one was
upset, and one of the passengers killed, just on the
London side of St. Albans. The inquest was held at
the Peahen in that town, and a verdict of man-
slaughter was returned against the drivers of the
Holyhead and the Chester, which was the other
mail. It appeared they had been racing, and one
in endeavouring to pass the other on the wrong side
was driven up a bank, and overturned into the
road. Both coachmen were committed to gaol at St.
Albans to await their trial at the next assizes for the
county of Hertford, where they were visited by the
son of one of the proprietors. He found them
ironed like felons, of which they complained, and one
wept bitterly. It struck him as being very strange
ACCIDENTS. . 377.

 

that men should be degraded as felons, when their
utmost punishment, if convicted, could not exceed a
twelvemonth’s imprisonment; so .he remonstrated
with the gaoler, who, however, replied that it was so
ordered by the mayor. Knowing something of that
dignitary, who was a surgeon in extensive practice at
St. Albans, he waited on him, but got no redress, as
he said he could only in such a case refer to his legal
adviser, the town clerk, and he believed the practice
was quite correct. The town clerk being then waited
upon, soon proved from a book containing Acts of
Parliament that the degradation was sanctioned by
law ; consequently the men remained in irons for six
months, when they were tried at Hertford, and
sentenced to the utmost penalty for their offence—
viz., twelve months’ further imprisonment in the
county gaol.

The sentence does not appear severe, considering
the dreadful result of the conduct of the two
drivers, who, utterly regardless of the lives of
their passengers, raced against each other in the
most reckless manner, the driver of the Chester
mail having designedly, by crossing in front of the
leaders of the Holyhead mail, forced it up the bank
by the side of the road, and thus upset it. Causing
instant death to. one passenger, and fractured
limbs to another, does not appear to be. adequately
378 THE COACHING AGE.

 

punished by one year’s imprisonment ; but the Grand
Jury did not find a true bill on the more serious
charge of murder.

The treatment of the prisoners before. their trial
shows that, according to the law at the time when
this event happened, persons charged with a capital
crime could be imprisoned for a period of six months
in irons, although it might turn out upon their trial
that they were innocent.

Since the year when this happened—viz., 1820—
the tendency to make laws and the treatment of
prisoners more humane has been considerable ;
-amongst other changes is the establishment of winter
assizes, So as to avoid keeping persons in prison for
several months, who ultimately may be acquitted of
the charges made against them.

Having now disposed of this sad case, I cannot do
better than wind up this chapter with the other
accident, to which I have referred as somewhat of a
comic nature.

A coachman known as Jack Everett, who drove a
day-coach on the lower ground between London and
Bath, managed somehow to upset his coach, thereby
breaking one of his own legs, and one belonging
to a female passenger. The accident happening
near Marlborough, and neither of them of course
being able to walk, they were both put into a cart
ACCIDENTS. 379

 

upon some straw, in order to be taken to a surgeon in
that place.

That Everett was not suffering any great agony
from his share in the accident may be assumed
from the circumstance that on the way to Marl-
borough he observed to his companion in the cart,
who was an elderly woman, that he had often saluted
a young woman, and did not see why he should not
salute an old one; and thereupon he saluted his
companion.

History does not relate that this led to any com-
motion or disturbance in the cart, or in any way
interfered with the setting and recovery of the
broken legs. :

Enough has been said to show that in the days
of coaches very serious accidents occasionally hap-
pened. So they do now. No returns exist of the
killed and wounded in the coaching-days; but
regular official returns are now made of such disasters,
the result. of which I believe is to show that, in com-
parison with the number of persons travelling,
injuries, both fatal and otherwise, are fewer by
railways than they used to be by coaches—notwith-
standing the hackneyed saying of the old coachman,
‘If an accident happens to the train, where are
you? but if it happens to a coach, there you

are !’
CHAPTER XIX.
EDINBURGH AND ABEEDEEN ‘DEFIANCE’

Ir fast coaches were put on the roads in England for.
long distances, so they were in Scotland, for there
was one coach in that country that for speed and
good management was not exceeded, even if equalled,
by the noted Manchester ‘ Telegraph,’ which was the.
fastest coach in England.

The coach I allude to was the well-known ‘ Defi-
ance,’ originally started by Captain Barclay of Ury,
and Mr. Ramsay of Barnton, both independent
gentlemen. It was first put on the road in 1829, and
no doubt paid well ; it was well patronized, not only
for its punctuality, but on account of the great
attention paid to the passengers and their general
comfort.

As regards the paying part of the concern, I have
heard this story :

Captain Barclay was driving one day with a friend
on the box, and the professional coachman just behind
EDINBURGH AND ABERDEEN ‘DEFIANCE,’ 381

 

him. The Captain happened to mention to the
former that he had been to a sharing meeting of
the coach that morning, and on his friend expressing
a hope that it had been a profitable one, the Captain
slapped his hand down on his coat-pocket, which
sounded as if there was something bulky in it, thereby
giving his friend to infer that he had received a
roll of bank-notes as his share.

The joke, however, was spoilt, and the friend
undeceived, by the professional chiming in with—

‘It’s nae joost anything but a leather horseboot his
honour has in his pocket ;) which was the actual fact,
the Captain happening to have such an article about
him.

It was not all horseboots, however, with this
concern, although the owners’ expenses were doubtless
heavy from the good class of horses they were obliged
to have, and the whole appointments being of a first-
class order, not omitting the uniform of their guards
—red coats with yellow collars.

Mr. Ramsay had about sixty horses in the concern.
The fares were £2 10s. inside, and £1 6s. out.

The rate of travelling of the coach—which carried
four in and eleven outside passengers—from Hdin-
burgh to Aberdeen, starting from the Waterloo Hotel
every lawful morning at seven, was as follows :
382 THE COACHING AGE.

 

Stages. Miles. Minutes.

To Queensferry 10 50
Crossing do., unloading and loading coach 2 30
Breakfast 20
Cowden Heath 8 45
Kinross 8 40
Glenfargue - _ 84 45
Perth - 84 40
Allison’s Inn 64 35
Cupar 64 30
Castleton 9 45
Forfar 9 45
Finhaven 6} 30
Brechin 63 35
N. Water Bridge 54 30
Lawrencekirk 6 35
Mondices 7 40
Stonehaven - 7 40
Bourtry Bush 7 40
Aberdeen 8 45:
Lunch on the road 10

1294 = 730

or 12 hours and 10 minutes.

The time allowed to each line of ground, Captain
Barclay said, was regulated by its nature, whether
hilly or otherwise. The same rate was maintained |
from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, only reversing the
time allowed to some of the stages. About a
horse a mile was required for the above rate of
travelling, which with that allowance could be done
with great ease and nothing like furious driving, the
horses generally in a swinging trot.
EDINBURGH AND ABERDEEN ‘DEFIANCE,’ 383

 

The Captain once drove the Edinburgh mail
throughout to London, being 397 miles, in forty-five
hours and a half.

A gentleman who regularly drove this coach
for some time, having been put on by Mr. Ramsay,
gives a melancholy account of his visit to the locality
some years after the coach had been taken off the
road.

He says: ‘There were no smart mails coming up
Leith Street, with McIntyre or McLeod or Aldersen
clearing the way with his yard of tin for the turn
at the trot opposite the Waterloo. No “ Defiance”
with Cook’s bright bugle, or Glasgow coach with
Rory O’More’s cornet, to wake the echoes. Sadly
I turned and hobbled down a lot of steps, and took
the train to Queensferry. Shade of Ramsay! shade
of Jemmy Lambert! think of that! The little place
had lost none of its beauty, though what will it
be when the Forth is spanned by a suspension bridge
with two spans, each of 1,600 feet? The nice hotel
was there, as nice as ever. I looked at the old
stables and the old coach-houses. There, indeed,
was the change. No well-mounted harness of Sheriff
and Fulton’s hanging at the doors; no strapper
washing a mud-splashed coach; no _ horsekeeper
putting a “point” on to some best whip kept for the
“Edinburgh end.” Some half-dozen bicycles leaning
384 THE COACHING AGE.

 

against the wall, whilst their riders were prudently
refreshing themselves in the hotel preparatory to their
return to Edinburgh, along perhaps the best bit
of road that coach ever rattled over. I then crossed
over to North Queensferry, and found a similar change
of scene—a railway station instead of the smart coach,
and the old stables and coach-houses falling to
ruin.

‘Few who remember those times, excepting as
children, are now to the fore, and of those fewer
still who know or care anything about the locomotion
of the period.’

To revert to English roads, there were two notable
country coaches—that is to say, coaches that did
not run out of London—which were said to be almost
as fast as the Manchester ‘Telegraph.’ There is
no doubt, I believe, that they were the fastest country
coaches in the kingdom, and there was a very strong
opposition between them. They were the ‘Hiron-
delle’ and the ‘ Hibernia,’ and ran from Cheltenham
to Liverpool, the former from the Plough, and the
latter from the Royal Hotel, starting at seven in the
morning for the journey of 134 miles ; and the time in
which they did it was said to be twelve hours and
a half, but I believe in fact was fourteen, which was
by no means bad work, as out of this time they must
EDINBURGH AND ABERDEEN ‘DEFIANCE,’ 385

 

have stopped somewhere for dinner, if not also for
breakfast, as they started at seven in the morn-
ing.

The ‘ Hirondelle’ was better known among the
horsekeepers and that class along the road by the name
of the ‘ Irondevil.’ :

Bath and Cheltenham somewhat resembled each
other in coaching affairs. They were both fashionable
places, ‘and each had a fashionable day-coach to
London ; that from Cheltenham being the ‘ Berkeley
Hunt,’ from the Plough Hotel, and that from Bath
being the ‘ York House,’ running from the York House
Hotel. Each also had a second day-coach, starting from
the same places, viz., the ‘Cheltenham Magnet,’ from
the Royal Hotel, and the ‘White Hart,’ from that
hotel at Bath.

There were besides other day- coaches running
through each of these places, but having come from
farther down the country, such as all the Bristol
coaches which passed through Bath and all the
Gloucester through Cheltenham ; and those to whom
‘it was not convenient perhaps to post just when they
wanted to go to town, or who found the posting
throughout rather too expensive, would patronize
what I may call the coach of the place.

Travelling post was a somewhat expensive affair,
especially if with four horses, as appears by the

25
386 THE COACHING AGE,

 

account given by Lord William Lennox of the cost
of a journey from London to Holyhead—264 miles
—which he gives thus :

 

 

£s da £s. d
‘Charge for four horses 38 11 4
Post-boys - 9 610
Gates 4 9 5 1
Ostlers 1 2 6
58 5 9
Expenses. on the road four nights: beds,
dinners, and breakfasts for two persons
and one maid 5 8 0
5 8 0
Steamboat, Holyhead to Kingston, three
passengers - 3.3 =40
Carriage 2 2 0
Shipping 010 6
Lunch 0 7 6
Steward 010 O
Cabin 0 5 0
Sailors 0 5 0
- 7 8 0
Journey, expenses, and passage—Total 70 16 9

‘Now two first-class and one second by rail to
Holyhead, then best cabin-fares and refreshments,
about £9—a sum under the amount paid to post-
boys under the old system in bygone days. Ten
miles an hour, including stoppages, was about the
average posting-pace, and the charge for a pair of
horses, boy, ostler, and turnpikes, amounted to about
EDINBURGH AND ABERDEEN ‘DEFIANCE,’ 387

 

2s. a mile. Hence a journey of a hundred miles
would cost £10; with four horses, £20, in addition
to the tax, purchase, and wear and tear of a
travelling-carriage: for to make a journey in a
rattling post-chaise, a sort of dice-box on wheels,
was a most miserable affair.’

25—2
CHAPTER XX.
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES.

GuARDS were mostly on night-coaches-—mail-guards
especially, as they never left the General Post Office
in London until eight o’clock at night, so that for the
greater part of the year it was dark even before they
commenced their journeys. I fancy the principle
upon which the mails were arranged by the Post-
master-General throughout the country was that the
correspondence should be proceeding to its destination:
all night, so that no time should be lost, and that, so
far as practicable in large and important towns, the
mails should be made up and despatched shortly after
the conclusion of the usual hours of business, and
by the general time of commencing business in the
morning should arrive at any place not more than a
hundred miles distant from London.

Guards’ places on long coaches were hard work, a
man being out so many hours. On the mails they
were not out so long, as they did not go much above
a hundred and twenty or thirty miles, unless in
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES. 389

 

journeys where the extreme points of a mail’s journey
were only a little over that distance, which made it
too short to divide between two; otherwise, on the
London and Liverpool road, or Holyhead, for instance,
one guard would not take the whole distance.

The coach-proprietors, appointing their own guards,
and having only the prosperity of their coaches to
consider, were averse to having too many guards and
coachmen for their passengers to pay, to which the
passengers naturally objected, preferring, both as a
matter of convenience and economy, to pay only
occasionally, and for long distances.

The Postmaster-General did not in any way concern
himself with the likes or dislikes of the mail-
passengers, caring only not to send his guards on too
long a journey, or keep them on duty for too many
hours continuously, so as to run the chance of their
not being active and thoroughly up to their work.
Although mail-guards were strictly looked after as to
the time of their starting on their journeys and
arriving at the end of them, yet it sometimes
happened that a man in the night, when there was
no one to see what was going on, would allow the
mail to lose time by either stopping at places where
he ought not, or stopping longer than the proper
time somewhere, in which case, if the time lost was
more than the coachman could or would make up,
390 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the guard had to make the best explanation he could
of the lost time.

I have heard of two cases in which the guards,
having got into such a dilemma, and being unable to
think of a satisfactory excuse to offer, adopted
different modes of extricating themselves.

To those who do not know how the mail-guard’s
timepiece was carried, I may mention that it was
locked up in a small wooden box, having a circular
aperture in it the same size as the face of the time-
piece, which could be seen without opening the box;
while there was no way of getting at the timepiece,
or altering it, without opening the box, which the
guard carried in his leather pouch by a strap over
his shoulder, similar somewhat to those worn by
railway - guards. The mail - guard’s pouch and
‘strap, however, were of plain brown leather, and
underneath, next his body, was a circular hole in
the pouch, through which the face of the timepiece
could be seen; in order to know at any moment
what o’clock it was, he had only just to lift up his
pouch, and at once see the face of the timepiece.

Having thus explained the arrangement as to the
timepiece, showing that the guard could not get at
it to move the hands, I will mention the mode in
which one guard endeavoured so to get at the time-
piece as to alter it, and make it appear that he had
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES. 391

 

kept time by it; and that, if the mail was late, it
was due to the timepiece having gone wrong, and
misled him. He tried by inserting the point of his
knife-blade in the opening of the box to pick the
lock, or push it back in some way; but, unfortu-
nately for him, before he accomplished this feat of
manual dexterity the point of his knife broke off in
the opening, and, being unable to get it out again,
he was obliged to deliver up the timepiece with the
point of the knife in it. What the result was I
don’t know ; but I should imagine suspension for a
‘considerable time, if not dismissal.

The other case was that of a man who had also lost
time, and having to account for it resorted to a
totally different plan. To bring the timepiece into
pretty strong contact with the hindwheel and thus
prevent its continuing to go correctly, was not a
very difficult matter ; nor, when delivering it up at
the Post Office, to explain that, while getting up, his
foot had slipped off the step, so that, falling violently
against the wheel while in motion, the timepiece had
got injured; but providentially the guard had just
managed, by great effort, to save himself from
falling under the wheel, when he must inevitably
have been killed. This account I believe passed
muster, but probably with a slight suspicion as to
the thorough genuineness of the serious accident,
392 THE COACHING AGE.

 

accompanied with a pretty strong caution as to its
recurrence.

I should expect that exploits of this nature were
very rare indeed, there being too many chances of a
man being found out, in which case the conse-
quences were so serious that I imagine it was a case
of ‘ Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle.’

Many were the commissions and little matters of
business which persons at a distance from London
found it. convenient to get coachmen and guards
to execute for them, as also the conveyance of small
parcels containing money or valuable documents;
their transmission as ordinary parcels, but insured,
not being a plan generally adopted. Horne said
they did not have one a week by the mails on an
average.

Sometimes a guard would get five shillings or
more for a short paragraph respecting some im-
portant event which had just happened in London,
and which the newspaper editor in the country
wanted to insert in the next issue of his paper;
and for some legal documents called ‘ Answers in
Chancery,’ which it was desirable to be able to ttace
from one hand to another, they would receive as
much as a sovereign for carrying them.

A guard arriving in London in the morning would
have until the afternoon, or perhaps the next day,
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES. 393

 

before he left again, so that, having ample leisure
for transacting any business of his own, he might
earn a good deal of money, and perhaps have what
was known as ‘the best wheel of the coach,’ which
meant that it paid him better than the proprietors.
Sometimes guards who travelled through the iron
country would buy a number of chain-traces, which
they could get at Stafford and places in the neigh-
bourhood for tenpence apiece, retailing them to
the coach-proprietors, when they were required, at
seven shillings and sixpence each ; but it occasionally
happened, where a chain-trace had been put on in
the course of a stage, that in the hurry of changing
with the mails it was not taken off, and when
inquired for by the guard on the next journey, some-
how or other the horsekeeper had forgotten to bring
it out—and on the next occasion could not find it,
supposed somebody must have taken it out of the
stable, or some such excuse; in fact it reminds
one of the story of the man who, having lent a frying-
pan to his neighbour, and failing after repeated
applications to obtain its return, instituted legal
measures for the purpose of enforcing restoration.
The borrower, resolved to be prepared with an
answer to any case which the owner might set up,
pleaded, first of all, that if he had borrowed it he had
returned it; next, that he had bought it; then, that
394 THE COACHING AGE.

 

it had been given to him; and lastly, that he had
never had it at all.

Much the same was it with the chain-trace, the
horsekeeper having probably sold it to some coachman
or guard going up or down the road, so that the
guard who originally owned it never saw it again.

Sacks or hampers of game were sometimes carried
up on the mails at night, much to the profit of
the guard, in this way. When they were chang-
ing, he would tell the coachman to: pull up at
the corner of the lane just three miles farther, on
the left side of the road; and blowing the horn
would be the signal for the man with whom the
arrangement had been previously made, to be at
the corner of the lane with the hamper or sack with
direction attached—say, ‘Mr. Smith, passenger to
London ;’ the package was handed up, and the mail
was off again. The word ‘passenger’ passed it as
passenger’s luggage, and prevented any unpleasant
inquiries being made, and at a convenient place it was
taken off the mail before it stopped at the office in
London for any of the passengers to get off with their
luggage.

A good deal of business was done in this mode
before the sale of game was legalized by Act of
Parliament, it being looked upon in the same light as
smuggling. All right if you didn’t get found out.
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES. 395

 

It is difficult to say what a guard travelling a long
distance on a good road, such as from London to Liver-
pool or Manchester, would not earn in the course of a
year, being out three or four nights a week, together
with short fares, commissions for business, etc.

Sometimes four commercial men would come up
together, taking the whole of the inside of the coach,
and playing whist in order to beguile the tedium of
the journey, getting the guard at divers intervals, as
occasion required and opportunity offered, to procure
them a bottle of sherry or other refreshment ; and for
the performance of this little attention he was of course
not forgotten at the end of the journey. On another
occasion a lady, two of whose sons were going up to
London, consigned them to the care of the guard,
with strict injunctions not to allow them to smoke.
The coach, however, had not gone far before he
found out that the youngsters were provided with an
ample supply of cigars, which they produced, and,
despite his remonstrances, proceeded to smoke; so
finding his persuasive powers inadequate to the
occasion, he accepted their offer to partake of their
supply. They all smoked very comfortably together,
the soothing influence of the narcotic weed no doubt
quieting any qualms of conscience from which the
guard might otherwise have suffered.

‘I was driving down one night,’ said a mail-coach-
396 THE COACHING AGE.

 

man to me, ‘and had a young swell on the box, who
offered me a cigar; on my declining it just then,
he told me to take off my hat, when he filled it
with cigars, and I put it on again. In another
instance a passenger of a similar description was
travelling by the Leeds mail, which with others got
snowed up at St. Albans. The passenger stood
divers glasses of brandy and water to the coachman
and guard ; and on their explaining the impossibility
of proceeding, he said: “ Oh, I thought Her Majesty's
mail must go.”’

Quite a romantic event occurred in connection with
a coach up from Exeter one night. It happened on
what was called ‘market -night,’ when there was
always extra loading with passengers and their
parcels; and the guard, on going into the buoking-
office preparatory to loading his coach, saw three
huge black boxes, each weighing nearly a hundred-
weight, and with a large white letter, say ‘A,’ on it.
He was struck with astonishment, and asked the
book-keeper how he could have engaged to take them,
and where were they to be put on the coach? in
answer to which the book-keeper told him they
belonged to a lady who was going by the coach,
and said they were her luggage and must go. Just
at that moment the guard was touched on the shoulder
by some one, and on turning round, saw the lady, who,
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES, 397

 

as he expressed it, had eyes that looked through him.
Being a young man, and not wholly unsusceptible to
female charms, he entered into conversation respect-
ing her luggage. She remarked that he seemed a
good-natured person, and asked him to accompany
her into the coffee-room, where she gave him some
wine, saying that they should probably become better
acquainted during the journey, and succeeded in in-
ducing him to take her boxes. They were accordingly
put up on the coach, which at the usual time started
with four ladies inside, of whom the owner of the
boxes was one. At more than one place on the
journey, when the coach stopped for changes, the
guard was told that the lady was very ill, when
he went to the door, and suggested that she should
have.a little brandy, which he procured for her; but
on arriving at a little out-of-the-way place, about one
o’clock in the morning, where no medical or other
assistance was procurable, her condition had become
so serious that the coachman galloped over the stage
as fast as he could go, in order to reach Deptford
Inn. The usual time of arriving there was about two
o'clock in the morning, when the house was always
closed, and. all the inmates in bed, It happened,
however, that on this particular morning the land-
lord’s son having passed his medical examination
in London, had come down, and the event was being
398 THE COACHING AGE.

 

celebrated, so that the house was open and the inmates.
were up. The lady was taken out of the coach and
carried into the inn, together with a little stranger,
who had come part of the journey, and had not been
booked when the coach left Exeter. The presence
of the medical student was most opportune, and he at
once attended to the lady. Another difficulty, however,
arose: the three large boxes which were on the roof,
and under the other luggage, were to be taken off.
In order to effect this it was necessary for the
passengers to get down. This being accomplished,
and the coach loaded again, it proceeded on its
journey, arriving in London two hours after its time.

When it was driven into the yard a gentleman was
there, who looked inside the coach, evidently ex-
pecting to meet some one; but not succceding he
made inquiry of the guard, who said if he would
wait in the coffee-room he would go to him as soon
as the coach was unloaded, which he did, and related
the event that occurred on the journey, at which
he expressed his surprise; but he went down by
the earliest means available to Deptford Inn. On
his next journey up, a long list of articles required
.Was given to the guard, together with a ten-pound
note to pay for them; and on a subsequent journey
a similar commission was given to him.

The lady and gentleman remained at the inn
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES. 399

 

about six weeks, during which time there was a
christening, both coachman and guard getting leave
off for a journey in order to attend in the capacity
of sponsors, one of the names of the latter being
chosen as the Christian name of the little A.
Besides the festivities usual upon such occasions,
both coachman and guard received very handsome
presents, and did much better by being a day off the.
coach than on it. The landlord of Deptford Inn also.
derived considerable benefit from the occurrence.

This same guard, as was usual at Christmas-time,.
had his coach loaded with oyster-barrels—common.
presents at that period, when oysters had not reached
the present exorbitant price. Among the recipients
was a gentleman in a wholesale way of business near
Exeter, who was a constant passenger by the coach,
and knew the guard well. Oyster-barrels seemed
to have been showered down upon this gentleman
by his friends and customers in London to such an
extent, that in the course of two or three journeys
the guard had taken down over two dozen, when it
occurred to him that there must be more than the
gentleman could possibly want, and that therefore
he might as well have a couple of barrels for himself ;
so he took them home, much to the surprise of his
wife, who thought he had been guilty of a bit of
extravagance.
400 THE COACHING AGE.

 

A few days afterwards he met the gentleman, and
told him how he had made free with his barrels,
when he quite coincided in the prudence of the step
he had taken, but added, ‘ Why in the world didn’t
you take some more ?’

Baskets of fish, turkeys, game, and other presents,
poured in upon this gentleman in the same proportion
as the oyster-barrels, but the guard did not levy any
contribution on these.

Being a good bugle-player, he was put on the
Cheltenham ‘Rival’ at a time when it was not
doing very well, with a view to rendering it more
attractive, and in a certain way making it better
known, as the sound of the bugle, when the coach
passed through each town on its journey, drew the
attention of the inhabitants to it, while otherwise it
might have passed quietly through the town quite
unheeded.

The incomes of coachmen and guards were best
known to themselves, but that they were in numer-
ous instances handsome is beyond all doubt, and
much in excess of those of many of the middle-
ground proprietors. Half, and frequently whole,
sovereigns as fees from noblemen, gentlemen,
bankers, and merchants, and a class of passengers
who could afford to pay well, together with short pas-
sengers’ fares and business commissions, with perhaps
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES. 408

 

two coaches a day, nearly always full inside and
out, soon mounted up to a considerable sum.
One man I knew had, in the days of coaching,
upwards of three thousand pounds in a bank,
made, I believe, while he was a guard; but it all
went, he himself going into the Fleet Prison when
the money had been wasted in extravagance of
various kinds. That he was on a good coach may
be known from the fact that there would be some-
times seventy or eighty pounds on his way-bill before
going out of the yard in London. As the coach went
a long distance, the charges for parcels made up a
large amount, in addition to the fares of the
passengers.

Some idea may be formed of the fees guards
were in the habit of receiving, from an instance
which occurred on a coach running to a town not
more than a hundred and forty miles from London.
A young gentleman, who was a passenger to
London, was furnished, as it was supposed, with
ample means for paying the coachman and guard, so
he was very liberal to the latter during the journey,
treating him to divers glasses of brandy and water,
together with many cigars. On his arrival in
London, the young gentleman, evidently totally
ignorant as to what was about the proper sum to
give the guard, offered him a sovereign, at which,

26
402 THE COACHING AGE.

 

however, he expressed himself dissatisfied, thinking
no doubt the young gentleman was so unused to
travelling that, by a little pressure, he would be
induced to give more rather than appear mean. I[
am happy to say this is the only instance I have
ever heard of such disgraceful conduct. Many men
were very independent, and considered themselves
great swells, but such was far from being the’ cha-
racter of the general body of coachmen or guards;
and speaking from a somewhat extensive knowledge
of them, I have never personally met with any
unpleasantness or want of courtesy and civility.

So confident were they, up to shortly within the
time when the coaches began to be put on the
railway-trucks out of London, that nothing could
ever supersede road-travelling, that they failed to
make any provision for a rainy day ; and when their
coaches stopped, they hung about the old coaching-
inns doing nothing, some from want of qualifications,
others from an unwillingness to accept positions they
considered derogatory. Some of these men, being
unable to get employment, dwindled down into a
most deplorable condition, as happened with John
Peer, a noted coachman and first-rate hand on the
London and Southampton ‘ Telegraph.’ He got down
to driving a bus, and ultimately into a workhouse
in London, when his case being made public in a
GUARDS AND THEIR FEES. 403

 

newspaper by some gentleman who had known him
well, and travelled with him often in his palmy days
on the ‘Telegraph,’ donations were solicited, and his
patrons subscribed handsomely ; thus the poor man
was soon removed to a more comfortable locality
somewhere along the road he had so often travelled,
and ended his days in quiet retirement.

Many others, both coachmen and guards, when
they had laid by something, took public-houses
with varied success, some having done very well,
though scarcely making such handsome incomes as in
former days, or engaged in an occupation so congenial
to their tastes as coachmanship. Others I have
seen driving omnibuses in London, or to railway
stations in country towns.

26—2
CHAPTER XXI.

GENERAL.

Ir has often struck me when looking at an ex-
cursion train containing several hundred passengers,
what an immense number of persons must travel
now compared with those who did so before the
railways were made—allowing for the great increase
which has taken place in the population, which in
round numbers, according to the census, was over
18,000,000 in 1831, but in 1881 exceeded 25,000,000.
I suppose that not one in a hundred of those who
now travel could have been accommodated by road
under the old system.

Take, for instance, one of the long third-class
carriages, with six compartments, and ten persons in
each, which is their number, and you have as many
passengers as could be conveyed in five stage-coaches
with ten outside passengers on each ; while two first-
class carriages, each with their three compartments
having six seats, will accommodate enough persons to
fill the inside of nine coaches.
GENERAL... 405

 

I question very much whether one only of these
long trains does not convey more persons to places
upwards of 150 miles from London than were taken
by all the coaches and mails travelling between them
in one day.

You might almost count on your fingers the
number of coaches running right through daily with-
out any change to places as far distant from London
as York, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, and Exeter—
all of them large towns. There were, of course,
a great many intermediate coaches by which a person
might travel a hundred miles or less one day, and
then go on again the next—as, say, from London
to Birmingham on the first day, and thence to
Manchester or Liverpool, to which there were plenty
of coaches, on the second day ; and so with the other
towns. Then again, besides the coaches, there were
the various other means of getting along the road,
such as in private carriages, either with their owners’
horses, travelling a short distance daily, or with post-
horses; all the posting, pure and simple, in the
old yellow post-chaise; the commercial travellers
with their ‘traps,’ as this was the mode of travelling
almost universally adopted by them; and a host
of vehicles of various sorts and descriptions. The
above comprise pretty nearly all the persons who
would be travelling along the main roads, except
406 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the pedestrians, of whom there were always a goodly
number.

The nearer you approached to London, the number
of coaches, and naturally other conveyances as well,
increased, as from Birmingham, Gloucester, and
Bristol there were more than from the other large
towns I have named ; while approaching nearer still to
town, as Southampton, Portsmouth, Brighton, Oxford
and Northampton, there were not only the direct
coaches running between those places, but the long
coaches from a greater distance, passing through some
of them.

For the comparatively insignificant number of road-
travellers that there used to be, ample accommoda-
tion was always provided, as even the small number
of coaches running were not always full; and directly
it was found that those on the road were loading
fully almost daily, and doing exceedingly well, op-
position or additional coaches would be put on by
some one or other: so that a good coach was not
very often left to remain in a state of unwonted
prosperity, without any rival to share in the profits,
and thus perhaps convert one well-paying coach
into two, neither of which would do much good
for the proprietors. So strong, however, was the
spirit of rivalry among coach-proprietors, that they
would keep on running against each other long after
GENERAL. 407

 

the business was productive of benefit to any of
them, no man liking to knock under and take his
coach off the road.

A person who was in the habit of keeping the
accounts of about thirteen coaches for the proprietors,
made, with some trouble, a calculation as to the
amount of duty paid in respect of each passenger in
the course of a year, and the result was, that if the
coach was always full, it would not exceed two
shillings and a penny a head on the fare of an inside
passenger for a hundred miles ; but if the calculation
was made upon the average number of passengers
travelling throughout the year, it would then come to
four shillings, and the sum paid for duty in the course
of the year was not less than thirteen per cent. on the
gross earnings. But he said he did not think that
the amount of duties could be a fair criterion of the
success of the coaching interest, because persons
would keep coaches going whether they gained or
lost. A strange system prevailed in the coaching
interest, by which persons would put on coaches
merely for the sake of putting them on, and often
an innkeeper with a good business connection would
put on a coach in order to keep others off.

"Referring to the subject of coaches being kept
on the road at a loss to the proprietors, a gentleman,
who was settling agent to several coaches, said: ‘The
408 THE COACHING AGE.

 

great rapidity with which coaches are hurried along,
and the manner in which they are made to work
together, had greatly diminished the advantages that
coaches could produce to an inn. That very fre-
quently an opposition was carried on by the old.
coach-masters from a sort of attachment to the road,
a desire to keep it to themselves, and a spirit of party
against all intruders, and they had sometimes lost
large sums of money.’ :

He further gave an instance of an attempt by a
joint-stock company to establish a coach on a road
down in the North. It was composed of persons not
at all connected with the business, nor with the inns
on the road. It was an attempt to create a new
era in coaching. They fancied there was an unwhole-
some system adopted by the innkeepers who were
the chief coach-proprietors; but after carrying on their
concern for about a year and a half, the company
gave it up, having incurred a loss of many thousand
pounds.

They did not find their own horses, but contracted
for the working of the coach ‘at so much a mile; and
there was more money paid to the contractors than
the company was receiving, after paying the expenses
of tolls, duty, and so on, so that they were necessarily
losing a large sum of money constantly, and the
concern wholly failed.
GENERAL. 409

 

Considering that at the time these observations
were made persons were being conveyed by steamer
from London to Hull for four shillings best cabin,
and two shillings steerage, and no duty being pay-
able in respect of them, the coach-proprietors do
not seem to have complained without reason of
the heavy taxation to which their business was
subject in several ways. All that they desired was to
be put on an equality with their competitors; and as
long as there was not this unfair competition, the
coaching interest never thought of complaining, but
paid immense sums to the Government with the
greatest cheerfulness. And as they contemplated
almost the cessation of travelling, what they wanted
was merely a sort of reprieve, or power to gain a
little before they were completely done up.

I must say I think the old coach-proprietors were a
most energetic set of men, rather wanting perhaps
in discretion, and allowing their enterprising dis-
positions to lead them on to embarking in and con-
tinuing undertakings which they were perfectly well
aware were failures in a financial point of view.

Where there were two coaches running against each
other, with the proprietors of both probably knowing
that there was not much more than a living for one,
yet neither side would give in, as the publicity of
being driven off the road would be somewhat galling
419 THE COACHING AGE.

 

to the parties who had been defeated, and a corre-
sponding triumph to those who still maintained their
position, and kept their coach on, especially if the
opposition had started with anything like a grand
furish of trumpets.

A coach-porter at Winchester, who used to load up
the Southampton ‘Telegraph’ coach, was about to
lead, according to the usual phrase, to the hymeneal
altar a certain widow, regardless of the opinions and
experience of many men, including the elder Mr.
Weller, whose remarks to his son respecting widows
readers of ‘ Pickwick’ will probably recollect ; but
as they were published so many years since, it may
not be out of place to repeat them :

“Widders, Sammy,’ said Mr. Weller, ‘are ’ceptions
to every rule. I have heerd how many ord’nary
women one widder's equal to in pint o’ comin’ over
you. I think it’s five-and-twenty, but I don’t rightly
know vether it ain’t more.’

The coach-porter, Bishop by name, applied to the
clergyman to have the ceremony performed at half-
past seven o'clock in the morning. To this the
clergyman demurred, and inquired the reason of the
bridegroom being desirous of having it at so early
an hour, when he replied that he should like to get
it done in time for him to load the up ‘Telegraph’
from Southampton.
GENERAL. 4ur

 

His future partner must have been somewhat of
the same character, I should imagine, as the elder
Mrs. Weller, as the landlord of the inn where the
‘Telegraph’ stopped said :

‘She'll upset the coach, Bishop.’ :

‘No, sir; I shall put her in near-wheeler, and
double-thong her,’ said Bishop.

I am unable to relate how far the double-thonging
was called into requisition, or whether the experience
of Mr. Bishop at all coincided with that of Mr.
Weller. Under any circumstances, I guess the
ceremony of going away to spend the honeymoon
must have been dispensed with, bearing in mind the
bridegroom’s anxiety to be ready as usual to load the
up-coach.

Several porters formed a necessary portion of a
large London coach - proprietor’s staff, and had a
tolerably busy time of it in the early morning or
evening.

In the morning there were all the parcels which had
arrived on the previous evening by the day-coaches,
together with all those which had come in by the
night-coaches and mails, to be sorted, and put into
the several carts taking different districts in town,
and delivering the parcels. Each of these carts
required two men—one to drive and take care of the
parcels, while the other got out and delivered them
412 THE COACHING AGE.

 

at the houses, receiving the amount of carriage and
porterage, for which he gave a small ticket, speci-
fying the inn from which it had come, and some
other particulars; so that, in fact, these tickets formed
a sort of advertisement for the proprietors. The
morning-delivery being over, and the men returned
with the carts and money received, which was handed
in to the clerk in the booking-office, the porters had
not much more to do until the hour approached
when one of the night-coaches had to be loaded; and
as some of these left London as early as three o'clock
in the afternoon, the interval between the termina-
tion of the morning work and commencement of the
afternoon was not very long.

As the afternoon advanced the work got  brisker,
for from one of the large inns three or four coaches
might be leaving the yard at the same time, if there
was room for them; or if not, shortly after each
other.

One of the dodges by which a porter used to earn
some extra shillings was, as soon as a coach was
drawn into the yard, or, if it had stood there all day,
just before the time for loading arrived, and before
the passengers came, to put his own coat on the
box-seat; when those who were not up to it, seeing
a coat on the seat supposed it was engaged, and
put their own coats elsewhere; but anyone ac-
GENERAL. 413

 

quainted with the practice would ask the porter if
the seat was engaged, and if the passenger looked a
likely person to give a gratuity to the amount of a
shilling, or expressed his willingness to do so, his
own coat and that of the porter changed places.

Another thing the porters used to do was to dry and
brush all the mud and dirt off the coachmen and
guards’ coats, etc., and have their boots and ‘clothes
all ready to put on the next time their coach was
going out. For this the coachmen and guards paid
them.

Apropos of the boot-cleaning there used to be a
coachman who, like many of his order, always wore
top-boots; but his were different in appearance from
all the others, as he persisted in having the tops
always blacked, as well as the rest of the boots. It
happened, however, that the porter at the inn
where he stopped for the night, and on whom there-
fore devolved the duty of cleaning his boots, had
been a gentleman’s servant, and in that capacity had
had the care of his master’s top-boots, and considered
himself perfectly acquainted with the correct mode of
treating these articles of dress. When, therefore,
the coachman’s boots came into his hands, conceiving
that they had been wrongly treated by some ignorant
individual, he set to work vigorously to get all the
blacking off the tops, and thus restore the boots to
414 THE COACHING AGE.

 

what he considered should be their proper condition.
To do this effectually on the first occasion was an
impossibility, so the boots had to be worn with a
neutral sort of tint on the tops, much to the disgust
of the coachman, who took means to have them
restored immediately to the condition in which he
prided himself on keeping them.

A head-porter’s place at a large coaching inn was a
very lucrative one, and those who assisted the guards
in loading the coaches generally received a trifle from
the passengers for putting up their luggage; and
indeed they looked for it, much in the same way as
the railway porter does now, notwithstanding ‘The
company’s servants are strictly prohibited from re-
ceiving gratuities, and passengers are earnestly re-
quested to abstain from giving them money.’ It
used to be said that, in order to further the observance
of this regulation, the porters’ trousers supplied by
the company were made without pockets. The
correctness of this assertion, however, I am open to
doubt.

The night-coaches all left London some time before
the mails, which had to be loaded up by the porters,
the guards with the bags being taken up in the yard
of the General Post Office ; except the western mails,
and these left their City offices about half-past seven,
jogging quietly to the West End, with a porter
GENERAL. 415

 

behind to take care of the luggage on the roof, and
prevent persons from getting up. They were followed
by a cart, driven by one of the men who had driven
out a parcel-van in the morning, there being a
separate cart with the guard and bags for each
mail.

The empty carts were then driven back to the
City, the porters who had gone up with the mails so
arranging that they should ride back on the several
day-coaches, which had not guards, and thus prevent
anything being purloined on the journey from the
West End to the City.

For the mail-cart, man, and horse, the Loudon
proprietor used to charge against the earnings of the
mail thirteen pounds a year, and also charge for way-
bills, books, and booking-offices in the City and at
the West End.

That fires sometimes occurred by sparks from the
railway-engine, and damaged the passengers’ luggage
during the time the mail was being conveyed by
train on a railway-truck, appears from the entries
I find in a sharing account of the Bristol mail :

Brymer’s portmanteau, burnt by fire on rail

Paid damages to parcels and passengers’ luggage
by fire: Levy’s parcel, £15 15s.; Morgan,
passengers, £2 5s, 18 0 0
416 THE .COACHING AGE.

 

Claims for losses of parcels were frequent, as
things would sometimes slip off a coach, through a
strap or cord giving way, thus, especially at night,
dropping on the road unnoticed. The liability, how-
ever, of common carriers was restricted to a certain
sum by Act of Parliament, except where the owner
of the parcel protected himself by special insurance.
This, however, was very seldom done, parcels of great
value being frequently delivered into the personal
charge of either the coachman or guard, to whom
a gratuity was given for his trouble, and if the
package was small he would probably carry it in
one of his pockets for greater security.

Such things have occurred as four persons, having
ascertained that a parcel of great value was going to
be forwarded at a certain time, engaging the whole of
the inside of the coach, and in the course of the
journey managing to effect a communication from the
inside with the boot, abstracting the parcel, and
leaving the coach before the loss was discovered ; and
I believe it was in this way that a parcel containing a
large sum of money, which was being transmitted by
the ‘Greyhound’ night-coach for payment of some
wages, was stolen out of the front-boot, and never
recovered. A similar robbery was effected from the
front-boot of one of the Oxford day-coaches before it
left Piccadilly, but not by the same means.
GENERAL. 417

 

Another case relating to the carriage of a parcel
containing a large sum of money I knew, and also
the gentleman to whom it occurred; as he has been
dead many years, I may, without scruple, recount
the circumstances. That they are still vividly im-
pressed on my mind will be readily understood when
I mention that this gentleman used occasionally to
throw shillings and half-crowns to be scrambled for
by some of us who were schoolfellows of his nephews ;
such events not being very common with schoolboys,
they are naturally remembered even though many
years have passed since they occurred.

It happened that this gentleman, who was a
banker, was travelling about five-and-twenty miles
in a coach, being the only person inside, and having
with him a bag containing about £500. On arriving
at the town where he resided, and the coach stopped,
he got out and went home, forgetting all about the
bag, which he had left on the seat of the coach.
As it was Saturday night, the coach was drawn
into the yard at the back of the inn, and left in
an open shed to remain until washed to go out
again early on the Monday morning. The next day
being Sunday, the bank to which the money would
in the ordinary course of business have been taken,
was of course not opened ; and it then occurred to the
‘gentleman that he had left his bag in the coach.

27
418 THE COACHING AGE.

 

He immediately went to the inn, and found the
coach just in the same condition as when it had
been drawn into the yard on the previous evening,
with the bag on the seat inside, and all its contents
exactly as he had left them.

Afterwards the banker unfortunately went out of
his mind, and it was probably owing to forget-
fulness arising from the malady with which he was
threatened that he left his bag in the coach, and
thought no more of it until some inquiry was made
of him respecting it.

Another reason for my having a vivid recollection
of this event is that the coach was one by which
some of us used to travel to and from school. It
belonged to and was driven by a man whom I knew
well in the days when we used, as boys, to have
round-topped trunks covered with calf-skin and
with curious strips of leather running in various
directions, and (by way of ornament, I suppose)
thickly-set. rows of nails after the style of a coffin
—except that the nails were bright and brass-headed
instead of black.

In those days coaches were not so particularly or
strictly timed, as may be gathered from the fact that
when two or three of us were going back to school
the proprietor would bring his coach up to our house,
which was out of his usual route, and there turn his
GENERAL. 419

 

coach and four horses round, a piece of coachman-
ship which I used in those early days to think a great
feat and admire immensely.

Very likely parcels and articles of considerable
value were often left in coaches and chaises, or
dropped from them in the course of their journeys
along the road, falling into the hands of the profes-
sional tramp or other wayfarer, or at times left
at the coach-ottices, forgotten, and never claimed ; as
is the case now in numerous instances, if we may
judge by the number of things of various descriptions
left at the railway cloak-rooms, and subsequently
disposed of at periodical sales.

In the generality of cases the booking-offices for
the coaches had no superfluous room for stowing
away luggage and other things, there being barely
accommodation for all the parcels and goods conveyed
by the coaches each day and night.

One use which was made of the old worn-out
coach-horses on the Dover road, was to work them in
teams of four in the fish-carts, which were really
light waggons, driven by a post-boy or some such
individual, and carrying from Folkestone and Dover
to London the fish sold by the boatload by auction
on the beach as the boats came in. Probably the
old coach-horses and posters had occasionally a
hard journey, the road being so hilly that it is

27—2
420 THE COACHING AGE,

 

said there is only one level mile between Shooter’s
Hill, eight miles from London, and a short distance
out of Dover, which is seventy-one.

There was a noted coach on this road called the
‘Tally Ho,’ which in 1841 had a very narrow
escape of an accident. The road was a mass of ice,
and the coach was going down a terribly sharp incline
on the Dartford side of Shooter’s Hill, with the drag
on, the coach being on some rough ground near the
footpath, when the chain snapped, and the coach ran
on to the wheelers. It was a case of full gallop or
nothing, and the face of Clements, the coachman, was
a sight to behold. The coach bounded -about like
a pea on a drum, but fortunately got safely to the
bottom.

Another alarm on the same road, but without
any accident, arose from an old hunter being in the
team, near Faversham, when the hounds crossed the
road in full cry a hundred yards ahead. When the
old horse heard them he went nearly mad, put
his ears back and kicked and squealed vigorously.
Some persons on the coach quickly jumped down and
set things to rights ; but it was touch-and-go. He
was taken out of the coach, and gave vent to his
feelings by kicking one of the wheelers violently in
the body ; fortunately not with the full force of both
feet, or it would apparently have driven his side in.
‘XTISNOUNODIA GATVaANOSS *% CAMOIM % MOVE SUVA SIH LNd

‘dur qaeyuey UL? PP sseBamg'r

 
GENERAL. 421

 

On Tuesday and Friday nights the foreign mails
were conveyed to Dover by an extra mail-coach,
which left London about midnight, and returned
at odd times, as it had no letter-bag to bring back,
but picked up any chance passengers. Although
called a mail-coach, it was an ordinary stage-coach
provided by Horne, who contracted for horsing it.
There was of course in those days a good deal of
smuggling at Dover, and one of these return mails
was cleverly and successfully made use of by the
smugglers in rather a smart way. A large cargo
of lace had been landed, but was lost sight of by the
revenue officers, who were on the look-out for
it everywhere. Asa blind to them, a post-chaise with
four horses was driven from Dover at a great pace,
with a number of packages inside. It was closely
pursued by the officers in another chaise, and the
chase was kept up till they got to Dartford, when
it was overtaken, but nothing contraband was found
in it. As soon as the supposed smugglers’ chaise had
left, the old foreign mail-coach started on its return
to London, picked up all the smuggled goods at
a roadside inn, and came leisurely up to London un-
suspected, dropping the parcels of lace at the Brick-
layer’s Arms, in the Old Kent Road.

An old resident in a village on the Dover road
many years back says: ‘I saw an immense deal
422 THE COACHING AGE.

 

of the coaching and posting on it, and it was wonder-
ful how good people were in case of an accident.
A coach was upset in the village, and a French
lady was seriously hurt. Her husband and children
were with her. They could not speak a word of
English, and had very little money. The innkeeper
housed them all, and the whole village took the
matter up, and repaid the host like the Good Samari-
tan. Thackeray said, ‘“‘ We are all Good Samaritans,
barring the twopence;” but our parish did not
stop short of that.’

A bishop’s chaplain, examining a candidate for
orders, told him to repeat the story of the Good
Samaritan, which he did correctly, winding up with
the twopence for the host, and the orthodox promise,
‘When I’ come again I will repay thee; but here
he added on his own account, ‘and this he said
knowing that he should see his face no more.’
CHAPTER XXII.
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS.

HAvING seen what coaching business was before the
days of railways, and something about the persons
who carried it on, and the large amounts they contri-
buted to the National Exchequer, it may be as well
to inquire into the mode by which their trade was
abolished, and also to see what difficulties and ob-
stacles railway companies lad to encounter before
they succeeded in acquiring a position which enabled
them entirely to supersede road-travelling.

Some of the notions as to the capabilities of steam-
engines as locomotives can scarcely be read at this
time without exciting some surprise and raising a
smile, so very circumscribed were the ideas of the
most sanguine.

Sixty or seventy years ago—or at all events at
the commencement of the present century—I sup-
pose nobody in existence dreamt of railways ever
coming into use as an ordinary means of convey-
ance, still less of their attaining the present rate of
424 THE COACHING AGE.

 

speed and monopoly of travelling. Any person
venturing to express such an opinion would, I should
imagine, have been deemed a fitting inmate for some
similar abode to Colney Hatch; and as much atten-
tion would have been accorded to the opinion as
to anyone who might now predict that the present
railways will some day be entirely superseded by
balloon-travelling. .

In Mother Shipton’s prophecies I believe something
is shadowed forth as to railway-travelling; but I
don’t think her prophetic powers extended in any
way to balloons, or that she even got so far as to
prophesy the rate at which the fast day-coaches
would travel.

In nothing, perhaps, has a greater revolution taken
place during the last fifty years than in travelling.
In 1835 there was not a railway out of London; and
perhaps the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which
was opened in the latter part of the year 1825,
may be looked upon as the first commencement of
railway-travelling, although in a very modified
form compared with that of some thirty years later.
It was not a very gigantic undertaking, being only
a single line twenty-five miles long; but the great
achievement, of course, was the propelling the train
by steam-—George Stephenson, the great engineer,
having constructed the engine, and being the driver
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 425.

 

on the opening day. The journey, however, as
advertised to be performed, regularly occupied a,
period of two hours; and on the opening day, it.
being calculated that the pace would be about four
or five miles an hour, a man on horseback proceeded
in front. As the speed, it was found, could be in-
creased, the equestrian had to leave the line, and
then a rate of twelve miles an hour was attained,
and considered a complete success.

Many difficulties had to be surmounted before the
steam-engine was completed and got into workable
order. The undertaking had met with very strong
opposition in its earlier days, endeavours to obtain
an Act of Parliament having been unsuccessful in
three Sessions; one very strenuous opponent being
the Duke of Cleveland, on the ground that the line
would interfere with his hunting. He was successful
in obstructing the progress of the undertaking for
a time; but in a subsequent Session a Bill was
brought in with the line marked out in a different
direction, so that his property was avoided, and
eventually the Act of Parliament was obtained in
1821.

The next line of any importance which came into
operation, and which at its commencement more
resembled railway-travelling of the present day, was
the Liverpool and Manchester, opened in September,
26 THE COACHING AGE.

 

1830, after having, like the Stockton and Darlington,
encountered very strong opposition, and being de-
feated in. one Session of Parliament, but eventually
passed in 1826. The opening of this line, which
was intended to have been quite a gala day, was, it
will be recollected, sadly marred by the accident
which occasioned the death of Mr. Huskisson.
' It having then been established beyond all doubt,
from the experience of these two companies, that
railways could be constructed to travel at a rate of at
least twelve miles an hour, almost the highest rate
of speed which the engineers, including Stephen-
son, considered practicable for ordinary travelling,
the railway spirit began gradually to spread over
the country; not so very rapidly, though, for some
ten or fifteen years as might have been expected, as
from the year 1830 to 1841 only two hundred and
sixty-two Railway Bills were brought into Parlia-
ment, and the greater number of these were to amend
former Acts. In 1832 only eleven Bills were brought
in, while in 1837 there were sixty-four, being the
smallest and largest number in the years between
1830 and 1841. This was very different from the
state of things in 1847, when there were three
hundred and thirty-one Bills before Parliament.

The formation of the different companies for con-
structing lines out of London would appear to have
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 427

 

followed very closély upon the opening of the Liver-
pool and Manchester line; but the making the
surveys and plans, and various other details, in-
cluding getting the requisite amounts of capital sub-
scribed before Acts of Parliament could be obtained,
occupied a considerable time ; thus we find that the
earliest of them was passed in 1833, and the others
at varying intervals, as will be seen by the dates
below—the London and Birmingham and_ the
London and Greenwich following each other within
a few days, though the preparations for the former
were of course much the more extensive.
The London lines were passed in this order :

London and Birmingham - May 6, 1833.
London and Greenwich - May 17, 1833.
London and Southampton ~ - 1834,
London and Great Western 1835.
London and Croydon - - 1835.
London and Eastern Counties - 1836.
London, Northern and Eastern - 1836.
London and South Eastern 1836.
London and Brighton - 1837.

The Great Northern was not passed until some
years afterwards. It met with a most strenuous
opposition from a rival company. Originally the two
companies competing for this line were called the
‘London and York’ and the ‘Great Northern,’ and
the line was not opened until after the year 1848.

At the end of the year 1839 the whole amount
428 THE COACHING AGE,

 

which railway companies had been allowed to raise,
either by capital, in joint-stock, or by loan, did not
amount. to more than £57,788,444, a very trifling
sum compared with the amounts which have sub-
sequently been sanctioned and since raised.

The gradual annual incréase in the length of
railways, as they wexe from time to time opened, will
be seen by these figures :

In 1843 the number of miles opened were 1,857

1844 . ” » 1,952
1845 ie oe » 25148
1846 : - » 2,441
1847 » ie » 3,036

Thus in the short period of five years the length of
the railways available for public service was nearly
doubled. All the principal lines out of London had
overcome their Parliamentary obstacles, and the
companies must have proceeded vigorously with their
works, as up to the end of the year 1843 the length
of all the railways at that time authorized by Parlia-
ment to be constructed was 2,276 miles, and the
length opened 1,952 miles, thus showing that the
entire length of lines sanctioned by Parliament -had
been actually opened, with the exception of the small
number of 324 miles.

Railway schemes, however, throughout the king-
dom continued to be brought out yearly in shoals,
and eventually led to the panic which occurred about
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS, 429

 

1848, when ‘stag’-hunting became a very extensive
matter of business, resulting, however, generally in the
escape of the ‘stag,’ who, having an early suspicion
of the approach of his pursuers, got a good start,
and eventually managed to evade them and reach
a place of safety. As so many years have passed
since that time, persons may have forgotten the
meaning of the word ‘stag,’ and others be too young
to have heard the expression. It may be as well,
therefore, to explain that it was a term applied
to persons who, having obtained letters of allotment
for railway shares, become directors in railway com-
panies, or otherwise incurred liabilities which they
were totally unable to meet, were obliged to make
a hasty journey across the Channel to Boulogne or
some other place abroad, where they were safe from
any hostile measures to enforce payment of calls. A
vast number of persons were compelled to resort
to this plan, and it was an everyday occurrence
to hear that so-and-so was a ‘stag.’ Those ‘stags,’
however, who had not the means of going abroad
and residing there were obliged to adopt some other
measures for concealing their whereabouts.

By the end of the year 1847 the railway fever
had attained its height, to which it had been rapidly
progressing for the few previous years, as the state-
ment of lines authorized and those opened stands
430 THE COACHING AGE.

 

thus: length of lines, authorized to be constructed
11,673 miles, with 3,816 opened.

Although Parliamentary sanction had been given
for the construction of railways extending over more.
than 11,000 miles, it must not be supposed that such
sanction. was obtained without encountering very
great, expensive, and frequently successful opposition,
eventually overcome, but too often at immense
cost in compromising with the opponents of the lines.
In the early days of railways they were opposed by
classes of persons who have subsequently seen their
mistake, and have been active promoters in under-
takings for bringing railways to their neighbour-
hood and properties. The most conspicuous instances
of fear of the proximity of a railway occurred on
the Great Western, which probably was as strongly
opposed and had as hard a battle to fight before it
got through Parliament as any line—perhaps not
even excepting the Great Northern.

Some of the opinions of men of the highest stand-
ing and professional knowledge show how difficult it
was at the commencement of the railway era to
form accurate estimates of the expenses of construct-
ing railways, or of their capabilities for conveying
passengers and traffic. Having alluded to the op-
position to the Great Western line, some account of
its progress through Parliament will show from what
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 431

 

a modest and limited scheme it originated, and the
battles it had to fight before a victory was secured.

The first application to Parliament by the Com-
pany was made in 1834, but without success. It,
was then confined to the construction of a line
between Bristol and Bath, and London and Reading.

In the following Session, considering it was not
advisable to go to Parliament with what appeared to
be an imperfect scheme, application was made for
the entire line from London to Bristol. To this,,
however, there were several very strong opponents
—one being a company for constructing a line from
the Southampton Railway at Basingstoke to Bath,
‘the Southampton Railway Company urging in sup-
port of their case that Parliament had already, in
the previous Session (1834), passed the Act for the
line from London to Southampton, by which forty-
four miles in a westerly direction would be made to
Basingstoke.

The Kennet and Avon Canal Company opposed
the Bill, as did also the Commissioners of the Thames
Navigation, who contended that the Thames would
be choked up for want of traffic, the drainage of the
county destroyed, and Windsor Castle left without a
water-supply—and that the railway would interfere
with the drainage so far as to occasion floods, and
prevent the convenient occupation of farms adjacent
432 THE COACHING AGE.

 

to the line. No stone was left unturned by many
gentlemen and influential landowners to prevent the
line being made, and avert what was called the
dreaded nuisance of a railway through their properties.
’ The grounds of opposition on the part of the Eton
College authorities at the present time seem rather
ludicrous ; but they were then urged upon Parliament
in all seriousness, and doubtless with a sincere
belief in their validity. It is worth while to
enumerate them a little fully.

‘ The school, it was said, would be absolutely and
entirely destroyed. London would pour forth the
most abandoned of its inhabitants to come down by
steam, and pollute the young minds of the pupils,'
whilst the boys would take advantage of the short
interval of their play-hours to run up to town with
the speed of a rocket, mix in all the dissipation there,
and return before their absence could be discovered.
In addition to this, the beauty of the country and
the retirement of private dwellings would be
destroyed.

_ The battle before the Committee of the House of
Commons was fought inch by inch with a degree of
earnestness and assiduity on both sides almost un-
equalled in any similar proceedings. The Bill
eventually passed through the Commons, but before
the Committee of the House of Lords the case in
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS, 433

 

its support occupied eighteen days, while the open-
ing speech of the opposing counsel occupied no
less than four. Some five or six of the leading
engineers of the day, including the Stephensons, and
Mr. Brunel, the Company’s own engineer, were called
as witnesses in support of the Company’s case; while,
to their surprise, only the engineer of the Southamp-
ton line and the proposed line from Basingstoke to
Bath was called on behalf of the opponents.

After this very severe struggle the Company at
length emerged triumphant, the Royal assent being
given on the 31st of August, 1835; the battle, how-
ever, had occupied the Committee of the House of
Commons no less than fifty-seven days in the Session
of 1834, and six months in the Session of the follow-
ing year. The public estimate of the undertaking
may be judged of from the circumstance that on the
passing of the Act it became necessary to advertise for
subscriptions for the additional capital of half a
million, and in less than a fortnight applications to
the extent of a million and a half were made. The
Act, as then passed, was for the construction of the
line to Bristol, joining the London and Birmingham
about four miles from London. The estimate of the
expense of constructing the whole line, including two
branches to Bradford and Trowbridge, making the
total length one hundred and twenty-seven miles,

28
434 THE COACHING AGE.

 

was two millions and a half, which was considered
quite sufficient to cover all contingencies. An Act
of Parliament was subsequently obtained for pro-
viding an independent terminus at Paddington:
Although only a line from London to Bristol, it
was called the Great Western in view of its being
the main channel for all the traffic of the west of
England and South Wales. It is almost the only
line out of London which has adhered to its original
name; but Brunel, the engineer, was a man who
did things upon an enlarged scale, whether in ship-
building or railways—the broad gauge being his idea,
and the Great Western then the only line upon
which it was laid down, the Bristol and Exeter
being a continuation of it.

The lines out of London which have changed their
original names are :

London and North-Western, originally London and Birmingham.

London, Brighton and South Coast, originally London and
Brighton.

Great Eastern, originally Eastern Counties.

South-Western, originally London and Southampton.

Seeing the ramifications that have taken place, and
the branch lines that have been thrown out right and
left to communicate with the main trunk lines, the
name designating the district encompassed by each
main line is more appropriate than that of the name
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 435

 

merely of the principal town at the extreme terminus
of the main line.

According to the several dates at which their Acts of
Parliament were passed, the Companies set to work in
the construction of their lines, getting portions of them
opened either at one or both ends as soon as possible,
in order to be in the receipt of some returns to meet
their very heavy expenses.

The Birmingham and Greenwich were the two
first lines out of London which received Parliamentary
sanction, and the latter, being so short a line, was
completed in three years and a half ; the Act having
received the Royal assent in May, 1833, the line
was opened on the 14th of December, 1836. Being
the first line opened out of London, it was made
quite a festive occasion, and tickets of admission to
the station were issued to the various friends and
supporters of the line on large cards, with a picture
of the railway as a heading, followed by

OPENING
of the
LONDON AND GREENWICH RAILWAY.

This ticket will admit

At the London Station, December 14, 1836.
J. Y, AKERMAN, Secretary.

The train will start at 12 o’clock.
28—2
436 THE COACHING AGE.

 

The other lines out of London opened on about the
following dates :

London and Birmingham to Tring 1837
Great Western to Twyford July, 1839
London and Croydon - 1839
South-Western to Southampton May, 1840
Brighton Sept., 1841
Northern and Eastern to Bishop Stortford - May, 1842
Eastern Counties to Colchester 1842

Shortly after this time, the above lines were com-
pleted so far as the points of their original destination
were concerned. Railway companies were busy
throughout the country, and the various branches
for connection with the main lines were in progress.
There was no longer any doubt that railways could
travel at a speed at least double that of any other
mode of conveyance.

Questions, however, were raised as to the practica-
bility of railway-travelling by night, and police-
men were kept on the Leeds and Selby line until
the passenger train had passed. It was considered
somewhat of an achievement that a passenger train
on the Liverpool and Manchester line started as
late as six o'clock from each end—from sunset
to nine or ten o'clock being considered the most
dangerous time ; goods only were carried by night,
when the policemen had been withdrawn. A very
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 437

 

competent authority, no less a person than the
President of the Society of Engineers, said, ‘ If mails
and passengers were conveyed, policemen would be
required along the line during the night; and in
answer to the question whether it had been found
necessary to light up the lines by gas or other lights
where goods and passengers were conveyed by rail-
ways at night, he said, ‘ Although the lighting might
be agreeable to the travellers, it would be of little or
no real use in the event of there being an obstruction
on the line, as it would not be seen in time to stop
the engine.’ The principal danger he attached to
travelling by night was in the case of cattle having
strayed on to the line; he summed up his opinion
as to railway-travelling by night by saying that
it would be comparatively as safe as by road—
adding, however, that he was perhaps an interested
witness.

With the view of ascertaining whether there was any
difficulty in travelling as punctually in the dark as by
daylight, an account was taken for six weeks in the
months of December, 1836, and January, 1837, of
the time occupied by the trains conveying the mails
between Liverpool and Manchester; the day mail-
train left each end at two ‘o'clock, and the evening
one at five, when it would be dark; the result was
that the journeys from Liverpool to Manchester by
438 THE COACHING AGE,

 

the two o'clock trains only exceeded their time on
eight occasions, and by the five o'clock train on
thirteen. The trains. on the reverse way from
Manchester at two o’clock exceeded their time on
twenty-five occasions, while the five o’clock train was
late on twenty-one only. Accordingly there does not
seem to have been any appreciable loss of time in
consequence of travelling in the dark; the trains,
however, only ran at the rate of twenty miles an hour,
being allowed an hour and a half to do the thirty
miles.

As twenty miles an hour was at that time looked
upon as about the highest rate of speed at which rail-
way trains could travel safely and punctually (the
line having then been opened about six years), it is
not surprising to find that ten years previously there
existed a very strong opinion among engineers and
other scientific persons that steam-power could be
made available for travelling on ordinary roads. The
idea probably originated from seeing the moderate
rate of travelling on which the Stockton and Darling-
ton line. The principal advocates and supporters.
of the system were a Mr. Gurney, who, after having
expended upwards of £22,000 in constructing engines
and otherwise endeavouring to bring the undertaking
into general use, retired from it, but stated his in-
tention of taking it up again in seven years, when
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 439

 

he thought the public mind would be prepared
for it.

The schemes that were then in contemplation, and
the opinions that. were given by highly. scientific
and learned persons on the subject of steam-travel-
ling on ordinary roads, appear at the present day the
visionary projects of enthusiasts, and such as we can
scarcely believe to have been entertained with any
reasonable prospect of success. On the other hand, it
must be borne in mind how exceedingly limited was
then the knowledge of the most talented professional
men with respect to the development and capabilities
of railways.

In addition to Mr. Gurney, a most implicit believer
in the power of steam-engines travelling by road was
a Colonel Maceroni, who certainlyj accomplished a
good deal, as he managed to go at the rate of twenty-
four miles an hour, or, on an average, twenty. His
steam-carriages did not exceed six tons in weight, and
were under perfect control, as he was in the habit of
running them in and out of London, and one locomo-
tive-carriage was regularly worked for some time from
Paddington to the Bank, along the New Road, but
eventually withdrawn, as it did not pay. ‘The
numerous stoppages were greatly to its disad-
vantage.

One difficulty, and. a very serious one, which
440 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the steam-carriages had to contend with, was the
want of capital— most of their inventors being
poor men; much money was expended in ex-
periments and improvements—more than indi-
vidual capitalists could be persuaded to advance,
although Mr. Gurney altogether sunk £100,000 in
the undertaking, and a Mr. Ogle £60,000. More-
over, about this time the public mind was running
upon railways, which met with very general support
on the part of the community, while the locomotive
schemes remained in the hands of a few individuals.
That, notwithstanding all the difficulties he had to
contend with, Colonel Maceroni was tolerably suc-
cessful may be gathered from the journeys he per-
formed, and it may be assumed that he carried
locomotive-travelling on roads as far as was possible,
and showed the utmost extent to which it was
practically available.

Some further account of his experimental journeys
and their results may not be uninteresting, first, how-
ever, giving two instances of experiments on rail-
ways which, like his, did not turn out very success-
fully.

_ Variations from the ordinary mode of drawing
trains by a steam-engine attached in front were
adopted by two short lines out of London, namely,
the Croydon and the Blackwall. On the former the
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 441

 

atmospheric plan was tried, but not with much suc-
cess, as it did not continue long in use.

On the Blackwall line there was not any engine
attached to the carriages ; but a metal rope running
the whole length of the line, passing over small wheels
and round large cylinders at each end, was kept in
motion by steam-engines. Attached to each carriage
was a pair of nippers by which a grip was taken of
the rope until, the carriage arriving at the station for
which it was destined, the guard in charge loosed
the hold on the rope and stopped the carriage ; the
same process being adopted on the return journey.
Many inconveniences no doubt attended the plan,
which, together probably with greatly increased traffic,
rendered its continuance impracticable, so that the
ordinary method was resorted to.

I have mentioned these two instances, as they were
experiments in the early days of railways, which, after
the test of practical experience, were proved to be un-
available.

On another line very considerable alteration in
its original construction was found necessary. The
London and Birmingham rails were, when the line
was first made, laid on square blocks of stone—
about two or three feet square, I should say—and at
short distances from each other. The rattle was some-
thing tremendous, but I suppose this was not why
442 THE COACHING AGE.

 

they were removed, and the wooden sleepers laid
across substituted throughout the line.

The Great Western, on the other hand, is. laid on
continuous lengths of timber running under the rails
for the entire distance of the line.
CHAPTER XXIII.
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS (Continued).

SEEING how far railway-travelling has surpassed the
expectations of its most sanguine supporters in early
days, it is of course just possible that the road-loco-
motive system, if taken up by the public, might in
like manner have far exceeded the expectations of
those who were at one time considered somewhat
visionary, and too much prejudiced in its favour to
be relied on.

The great labour and perseverance of Colonel
Maceroni is clear from the journeys he performed ;
for instance, he ran his locomotives every day for
eighteen months, and by way of giving the public
an opportunity of seeing what he could do, adver-
tised in the papers that he would take any per-
sons who wished to have a ride and a good dinner
besides to Harrow, or to or from Edgware; to the
former of which places the road for a distance of
two miles is steeper than any hill between London
and York, or London and Dover, and in addition
444 THE COACHING AGE.

 

is made of very soft material, or, in the Colonel’s
words, was always ‘like a feather-bed.’ Notwith-
standing that it was covered with loose gravel from
top to bottom, the Colonel went up it at the rate of
eight miles an hour. He travelled from the Regent
Circus in Oxford Street to Watford; and went four
times a day up and down Oxford Street, slow or fast,
or sometimes standing still, according to the state-of
the traffic and carriages. Locomotive carriages, it
was said, were perfectly safe on common roads, and
capable of ascending the loftiest hills; and as at that
time railways did not aspire to going more than
twenty miles an hour, the locomotive would not only
supersede the road-coaches, but would be able to
compete with any railway in the kingdom. The
persons advocating the introduction of steam-loco-
motives on the roads were few in number, and some
of them having expended all their available capital
in experiments and perfecting new inventions and
improvements, the public in general did not seem
to give the subject much encouragement; mean-
while it had been rapidly becoming manifest that
railways were likely to be a great success, and that
their advantages and capabilities were only just
beginning to be developed. The result of this was
that capital all went towards their construction, and
the locomotive projects naturally failed for want of
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 445

 

pecuniary support. Subsequent experience has shown
how utterly impossible it would have been for the
road-locomotives ever to compete with the railways.

That everyone was not as successful as Colonel
Maceroni in the endeavour to work steam-carriages
on ordinary roads, appears from the following account
of an experimental trip made in September, 1841 :

‘On Thursday morning last a new steam-carriage
built by a company of gentlemen at the West-end of
the town started on an experimental trip from
London to Hastings; they arrived in the after-
noon a mile from Hastings, when unfortunately the
boiler burst. The carriage was brought into the
town, and on Friday it was repaired; on Saturday
morning the party left Hastings on their return to
London. In descending the long and steep hill
within one mile of Sevenoaks the skid or drag-
chain broke, and they descended the hill at the rate
of sixty-three miles an hour, and fortunately reached
the bottom of it undamaged in person, although
they every moment expected to be dashed to
pieces. On their attempting to proceed up the
opposite hill into Sevenoaks, it was found impos-
sible—the whole of the machinery being broken and
out of place. With the assistance of ten horses it was
conveyed to the Crown Inn at Sevenoaks, where it
remained, much damaged.’
446 THE COACHING AGE.

 

The idea of this competition, however, was not so
unreasonable as at first glance would seem to be the
case, for the road-locomotive period, so to speak, was
rather earlier than the railway, as in 1839 a member
of the Institution of Civil Engineers, who had devoted
much attention to the subject, said he had travelled
more than 3,000 miles by steam-carriages on common
roads during the previous fourteen years, so that they
were in use before even the Stockton and Darlington
Railway. Neither the projectors of the road steam-
carriage nor railway engineers anticipated a pace
much above twenty miles an hour, so that in that
respect both were about on a par. But the road-
locomotive supporters had this great advantage, that
their roads were all constructed and ready for them
to run on, and the only thing for them to do was to
provide the locomotive engines and start them; the
railways, on the other hand, having first of all to
acquire the necessary powers for the purchase of the
property through which their lines were to pass, and
then incur a very large outlay in buying the land
and constructing the line. The future of the rail-
ways having dawned upon the public, there was an
end of the idea that steam-carriages would one day
cover the common roads throughout the kingdom.

As soon as the railways were completed for any
considerable distance, engagements were entered into
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 447

 

between the companies and the Postmaster-General
for conveyance of the mails at a speed not approximat-
ing the present rate, but more than double that
of the road-mails.

The mail-bags taken out of London nightly by
any one of the principal railways exceed probably in
bulk all that used to be carried by the six-and-twenty
mail-coaches which left London every night.

Seeing how little idea the most talented amongst
the engineers had of the capabilities of railways,
especially as to speed, it is not surprising to find
that in their calculations of the expenses of railway
construction they were equally wide of the mark ;
even Stephenson and Brunel were said to have
expended 140 and 150 per cent. more than their
estimates.

The mania for making railways was certainly
something extraordinary ; no scheme seemed absurd
or preposterous enough to prevent persons from
eagerly seeking to obtain letters of allotment of shares,
directly the prospectus was published. With many
the issuing of the prospectus, shortly afterwards fol-
lowed by the promoters seeking a change of air in
foreign climates, was the extent to which they pro-
‘ceeded. One in particular, which ended in this
manner, was a scheme which contemplated combining
the advantages of steam-locomotive travelling with
448 THE COACHING AGE.

 

the utilization of the main roads. The plan was to
partition off one part of the road by a high fence
running longitudinally, one side to be .used by the
locomotives running, and the other in the ordinary
way for road-travelling by carriages and carts, etc.
That the company or proposed company collapsed,
is not to be wondered at; but it does certainly
seem rather surprising that any persons should have
been found sufficiently bold to issue a prospectus for
such a palpably unworkable scheme, or incur any
expense at all in coanection with it.

When the country was thoroughly flooded with
railway schemes of every character, both practicable
and impracticable—remunerative prospectively pro-
bably, in some instances, but in many without the
slightest belief, or even hope, on behalf of the
promoters that they could ever be carried out—a
reaction began to take place which led to the great
panic about the year 1848.

As in every panic, numbers of persons were utterly
ruined, and it was not until the visionary and rotten
schemes had collapsed, leaving only the bond-fide
undertakings, that the more healthy state of affairs
returned; but many even of the schemes which
were ultimately completed, failed to be productive of
any profit or advantage to the original shareholders.

With a view, it would seem, of somewhat neutraliz-
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 449

ing the monopoly which it appeared railways would
establish, power was given in some of the earlier
Acts of Parliament for persons to run their own
locomotives and carriages on the companies’ lines, and
this was in some instances actually exercised ; but
the companies practically possessed a monopoly of
carriage on their lines, as by fixing their tolls at their
maximum, it would not answer for persons to provide
their own locomotives; moreover the companies
could regulate the hours of starting, were not bound
to allow the use of their signals and stations, to
provide water for the locomotives, or otherwise to
give the assistance of their servants or watchmen,
so that although not an impossibility, no persons
could advantageously work their own locomotives
on railway companies’ lines.

To counteract the monopoly of carrying passengers,
which it very soon became apparent companies virtu-
ally possessed, as also to afford a certain and inex-
pensive means of travelling to those who had been in
the habit of using the stage-waggons, carriers’ carts,
or other cheap means of transit, the Government
saw the necessity of substituting some alternative
for these customary modes which the railways had
stopped, and hence the trains called ‘ Parliamentary ’
were established by Act of Parliament in 1844,
which provided that the carriages should be protected

29
45° THE COACHING AGE.

 

from the weather, go at not less than twelve miles an
hour, and stop at every. station ; the fare not to exceed
a penny a mile, and the company to run at least one
train daily each way. Without this Act it is not
very clear how the poor people would have got about
the country.

What were called the open carriages, and repre-
sented the third class before the Parliamentary trains
were established, were very different from the third-
class carriages now in use, for they were wholly
uncovered, and on some lines the seats were fixed
in trucks very much the same as those in which road-
carriages are conveyed. The establishment of the
Parliamentaries was a great boon to the poorer classes,
who instead of travelling at a rate of about four miles
an hour, with great irregularity as to the time of
departure or arrival at any place, being in a great
measure exposed to the weather, and paying probably
as much as the fare of a Parliamentary train, are now
carried in comfortable carriages, at double the rate of
the fastest coaches, and with tolerable certainty as to
the times of departure and arrival at the different
stations ; although I find that some of the companies
in their official time-books, in order to protect them-
selves from any claims for compensation arising from
want of punctuality, issue this notice :

‘Every attention will be paid to ensure punctuality
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. A5E

 

as far as it is practicable, but the Directors give
notice that the Company do not undertake that the
trains shall start or arrive at the time specified in the
tables, nor will they be accountable for any loss, in-
convenience, or expense which may arise from delays:
or detention.’

The old coach-proprietors never ventured to issue
such a notice.

When railways were first commenced, everybody in
the shape of an owner of property seemed to look
upon them as things to be kept as much at a distance
as possible, and as seriously detrimental to the value
of houses and land, as in the case of the Collegiate
Dons at Oxford, and the governing authorities at
Eton; but now applications are constantly made
to railway companies to erect stations on their lines.
in order to increase the accommodation they afford as
much as possible, and in advertising property to be
sold or let, it is usually described as being ‘ within
a mile of a railway station,’ ‘close to a station, with
a good service of trains,’ or ‘ within a short distance
of two railways, with frequent trains.

In 1833, many City men lived in the City at their
places of business—not merely shopkeepers, but
merchants and other men of considerable position ;
and not very long before that period, men of sporting
tendencies would ride down from Cheapside, setting

29—2
452 THE COACHING AGE.

 

off early in the morning, according to the custom of
the period, hunt at Streatham or Norwood, and shoot
also over the same district.

In those days most men who hunted, shot, or took
much outdoor exercise, were generally good at a bottle
of old port. A City man who lived in Bucklersbury,
and used to ride with other City men and hunt in
the neighbourhood of Thornton Heath and Croydon,
formed a sort of club. After the day’s hunting was
over, the members dined together at a small country
inn, where they had laid in a stock of wine for their
own use only, the landlord’s (if indeed he had any)
not being sufficiently choice for men who were in the
habit of attending at City dinners. By degrees
the club was either broken up, or from some other
cause discontinued meeting at the little country
inn, and they made the landlord a. present of their
remaining stock of wine. Some time afterwards
a gentleman visiting the inn, and knowing of the
arrangements that used to exist with regard to
the supply of wine, expressed a wish, if the landlord
had any left, to have a bottle of the old port, expect-
ing to get something very choice. Rather, however,
to his astonishment the landlord said, ‘ Lor’, sir, we
have got rid of all that ; we were obliged to make it
into negus; the people wouldn’t drink it without.’
It evidently did not suit the rustic palate.
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 453

 

There was a story told as to the mode of hunt-
ing, whether at the end of the last or early part of
the present century I don’t know, but it ran thus:

Some old farmers used to meet for hare-hunting,
and went to the meet in what were called their
drinking-carts, in which they could sit, trusting to
their horses to take them home, though they were not
in a condition to return on horseback. On arrival at
the meet the horses were taken out of the carts,
saddled and mounted, and the hunting commenced.
As to the pack no account is given, but it probably
consisted of one or more dogs brought by the several
members of the party, and with a slight dash of the
hound in their breed. If when the dinner-hour
arrived, about midday, they were still in pursuit
of a hare, or there was a check, a stick was stuck in
the ground at the point where the hare was last seen,
and an adjournment for dinner took place, the sport
being ended for that day ; but on the following day
the hunt was resumed, commencing at the stick, and
then proceeded according to the plan previously
pursued.

The City men who lived out of town might be
thoroughly in the country, though only five or six
miles from the Bank; if they did not keep their own
carriages they went to town by what was generally
called ‘The Stage, which meant a coach running
454 THE COACHING AGE.

 

about that distance, and carrying six inside, with the
basket behind, which was a sort of box containing
two seats for three persons on each, sitting in the
same position as in an ordinary waggonette; it was
just above the axle of the hind-wheels, with steps at
the back to get up into it, and was in use on the
Greenwich and Blackheath coaches until they were
taken off the road on the opening of the railway.

When the South-Western line first opened seats
were constructed for two persons on the roof of the
carriage, their feet resting on a footboard between the
carriages, but protected from the chance of being
crushed by the buffers not allowing the carriages to
come sufficiently near to each other. Probably the
plan was found likely to lead to accidents from
passengers standing up and coming in contact with
bridges along the line, and hence was discontinued.

Other improvements have taken place from time to
time, the most important probably being the intro-
duction of the telegraphic signals—rather different
from the policemen all along the Manchester and
Liverpool line.

What with sleeping-carriages, dining-cars, foot-
warmers, and other comforts and conveniences in
railway-travelling at the present time, persons can
scarcely recognise it as the mode of travelling in their
early days, less than fifty years since.
CHAPTER XXIV.
OLD STABLES ON THE ROADS.

.VaRtous were the places and their aspects as
seen by the traveller in the course of a night on the
mail or coach. You might come to the large market-
town, a scene of bustle and business in the daytime ;
but when you arrived there in the middle of the
night, the only sound you heard was most probably
the guard’s horn, waking up the horsekeeper, and
apprizing him of the approach of the mail, and that it
was time for him to get his horses out into the street,
ready for a change, if he had not already got them
there, as, from the proverbial punctuality of the mails,
he might be sure that almost to a minute, unless
something had happened to cause a delay, the mail
would pull up at the, change. The guard’s horn
would also be the intimation to the person in charge
of the post-office to be ready to take the bags from
him, in exchange for those to go on. It frequently
happened that the post-office in a town was some
little distance from the change, and then the mail
456 THE COACHING AGE.

 

would pull up as it passed, either before or after
the change, according to the locality ; and the guard
could help at the change as he could at all the little
roadside places, where they often changed, though not
in a town or perhaps even a village, as the changes
were arranged according to the places where con-
venient stabling could be procured, the length of
ground suited, or it met the convenience of the
persons finding the horses, and thus it would some-
times occur that a town was passed through by the
mail without changing in it—merely dropping and
picking up the mail-bags.

At odd little places where you used to pull up for
the change, perhaps ten mail horses stood, being four
and a rest-horse for the down, and a similar number for
the up mail. Several stages of the mails were horsed in
this way by farmers, or small publichouse-keepers, or
horse-dealers, over parts of the ground where none of
the proprietors who had entered into and signed the
Post-Office contract would provide the horses upon
the terms of sharing only in the mileage according to
the earnings ; and in those instances local men had to
be found to cover the ground at a fixed rate of pay-
ment, irrespective of the amount of the earnings.

There was a great similarity among the villages
along the main roads, which may be seen still, where
there is not a railway sufficiently near to have intro-
OLD STABLES ON THE ROADS. 457

 

duced the speculative builder to the place, when, of
course, its old appearance is entirely changed, in some
respects by the alteration of the fronts of the houses
in the main streets, by putting in large windows with
plate glass, or throwing out a bay-window, and other-
wise transforming the place to such dn extent as
to render it scarcely recognisable ; and then, in ad-
dition to alterations, erecting a number of cottages or
so-called villas, or converting ranges of stabling
down the yard into dwelling-houses.

Two characteristics there invariably were about the
villages on the great roads. The first was length,
probably from half to three-quarters of a mile, or
even more, the houses nearly all standing on each
side of the main road; the second was that about
one house in six on both sides of the road would be a
public-house, or inn, none aspiring to the name of an
hotel, though almost every one would have stabling,
more or less, some ranges extending on each side
down a long yard.

This was, of course, a most valuable adjunct to the
house, as the stabling necessarily brought a number
of persons there, the majority of whom would feel it
incumbent upon them to ‘ take something for the goed
of the house.’

Although many of the ranges of stabling attached
to these old public-houses have been converted into
458 THE COACHING AGE.

 

dwellings, many may still be found where, for want of
any profitable result likely to accrue from alterations,
there being no demand for additional house accommo-
dation, the stables have remained in the same state as
when the traffic on the road was in full swing, save
only that for want of use and repair they have
sunk into a woefully dilapidated and melancholy
condition. ‘We rented a ten-stall stable with
loft over at a farm where there were only three or
four cottages, the stables being about eighty or a
hundred yards from the road. The mail we horsed
was the only coach that changed there; but in going
up the road in the year 1882, I found all the stables
chad been pulled down and the ground cultivated.’
Such is the account given by an old coach and mail
proprietor.

So far as I have by chance at different times had
an opportunity of looking into old coaching-stables,
the purposes to which they are now generally applied
may be thus stated :

In a stall at the end you will most likely find a
calf penned up, and no other use for any of the other
stalls. Ina stable up another yard you may find a
litter of puppies under the manger with their mother.
Elsewhere, you may see a hen sitting in one of the
mangers which run the whole length of the stable,
the said hen being the sole occupant of a ten-stall
OLD STABLES ON THE ROADS. 459

 

stable. In another place you will see two or three
unhappy geese put up to fatten, with a small pan
of water, with the object, it may be presumed, of
holding out to them the hope of one day being
released and enabled to return to their native element,
so that, living in a state of unbroken quietude, they
have nothing to do but eat and grow fat. Lastly, in
the entire absence of all live-stock, either equine,
bovine, or canine, a stall may be appropriated either
as a coal or wood depét. I think I have now
summed up the various purposes to which these
buildings are applied, and in default of their being so
required, you may find them wholly unused, the door
open, and possibly half off its hinges.

By-the-bye, I had forgotten to mention one species
of living occupant which may be found, I may
venture to say without exception, in every one of
these old buildings—I allude to the spiders, who,
judging from the quantity of cobwebs, and the
numerous large specimens you will see of their
weavers, must for very many years have had most
peaceful and quite undisturbed abodes, far removed
from the destructive and troublesome broom of the
housemaid, or the duster of the neat and prim old
maid in her little parlour.

It happened to me one day some years since to be
compulsorily fixed in one of the coaching villages on
460 THE COACHING AGE,

 

a main road for some hours for want of a train, or
any means of conveyance being procurable whereby I
could leave it. I strolled. about the village, making
inquiry for that noted individual ‘the oldest in-
habitant,’ in expectation of finding some one ac-
quainted with the place in its more lively and
prosperous days, and eventually was directed to the
little house of a tailor whose daughter, I was told,
was living with him, and was the widow of a man
who had been a horsekeeper for some of the coaches.

As I opened the door, the customary intimation of
the entry of some one was given by the ringing of a
bell, and I found myself close to the ninth part of a
man, who was sitting in the orthodox fashion of
members of his craft, cross-legged on a table, and
shoeless, stitching away at some garment.

Putting on my blandest manner, I proceeded to
lay before him the object of my visit, stating generally
that I took an interest in anything connected with
coaching in past days, and that having been told that
he was an old inhabitant of the place, and his
daughter also, as I have mentioned, I had taken the
liberty of calling on him to have a chat, and help pass
away the long time I had to spend in the village.

He seemed somewhat incredulous, not to say sus-
picious, and in answer to any inquiry I made of him,
generally replied by a question to myself.
OLD STABLES ON THE ROADS. 461

 

The appearance of the daughter I thought rather a
relief, and I endeavoured to divert the conversation
from him ; but he kept cutting in with questions, and
seemed fearful that I should elicit from her some in-
formation, or that she would give some answers which
were undesirable, so I was almost compelled to
include him again, and when I did not succeed in
procuring a satisfactory reply from him, make an
occasional appeal to the daughter.

I, however, so far succeeded that I got him fairly
into conversation about the place, and the roads
running through it, especially as he found I had some
previous personal acquaintance with them ; but I soon.
discovered that he was not much, if at all, better in-
formed than myself, and the daughter could not give
much help, so that his silencing her by his own
running commentaries and interruptions was im-
material. As he still seemed so suspicious as to the
motive of my inquiries, it occurred to me that I could
lose nothing, but might have some little fun out of
him, by being rather more mysterious.

I discovered conclusively that as to anything relating
to the coaches his statements were quite incorrect—
I do not mean intentionally, but that, possibly from
imperfect recollection, he was not a reliable source of
information in any respect whatever.

Although our interview had lasted for some time
462 THE COACHING AGE.

 

(as I thought I might as well sit there as wander
about in the road), he still was evidently unconvinced
as to my wishing to know about the road and
things connected with it solely as a matter of interest,
and he continually kept letting fly at me with ‘ But
why did I want to know? ‘What was it for? etc.
My most positive assurances as to the plain and
simple object I had in view utterly failed to satisfy
him, as appeared when, after our long chat, he wound
up, much to my amusement, with this observation :

‘Well, but how do I know ? perhaps you might be’
one of those inquiry men.’

I was so struck with the observation that I have
never forgotten it, but have often regretted since
that I did not ask what he meant by the expression
‘inquiry men,’ as I have not the slightest notion,
and can only suppose that it must have referred
to persons who had perhaps been making inquiries in
the place for the purpose of some railway undertaking.

Although I failed in increasing my stock of infor-
mation, I passed away an hour, more agreeably than
by hanging about in the village. My companion
was very civil, and by no means an unfavourable
specimen of the ninth part of a man.

Intimating that he had probably found it rather
dry work talking so long, I adopted the course usual
on such occasions, and we parted on the best terms,
OLD STABLES ON THE ROADS. 463

 

although I feel certain he was as thoroughly dis-
trustful of the object of my visit as ever, and I
have no doubt on the return of his daughter, whom
he despatched to procure the remedy for his com-.
plaint, they had a long gossip over me and the
meeting, and discussed at length the visit of the
mysterious stranger; and indeed I should not be
surprised if I was the subject of conversation at
one of the village public-houses in the evening,
where he attended. Could I have been among the
droppers-in, I might have found some other old
dwellers in the place from whom I could have picked
up something; but I had to leave soon after my
interview with the tailor, and certainly did not
regret my departure, for a small country village in
depressed circumstances is not quite the place one
would select to spend even a few hours in.
CHAPTER XXY.
CONCLUSION.

I HAVE noticed how our old parochial highways used
to be managed, and the alterations which have been
made in the system; but how far these alterations
taken throughout the kingdom have been advantageous
in point of economy—keeping the highways in as
efficient a state of repair at a smaller expense—
has certainly in some localities been doubtful; there
are instances where highway boards have been dis-
solved, and some other mode of managing the roads
has subsequently been resorted to. -

With regard to the question of repair, I doubt very
much if the country roads are in better order now
than they used to be before highway boards were
instituted. As to their present condition, one could
probably gain a good deal of information from the
numerous body of bicycle and tricycle riders by whom
they are so much used ; but then, again, very few of
the riders, I take it, are old enough to be able to give
much information from practical knowledge and
Hanhart imp

 

J,Sturgess del.et lith .

LEADERS FLEW OUT OF THE ROAD IN AN INSTANT.
CONCLUSION. 465

 

experience of what these roads were before high-
way boards were formed, now more than twenty
years since.

The abolition of the turnpikes, combining the main
roads with the parochial highways, and then the
contribution from the Consolidated Fund of some
portion of the expenses of maintaining the main
roads, renders the pecuniary result to that heavily
burthened individual so extensively known as the
ratepayer, an arithmetical question of considerable
nicety. Rates are now made for so many purposes
besides poor, highway, and church rates, which used
to comprise all those for which they were levied in
strictly rural districts, that one can scarcely wonder
that many people show very great repugnance to
paying them, consoling themselves with the only
available resource they have for giving vent to their
feelings by abusing the unfortunate collector—as if
he were in any way responsible for the imposition of
the rates !

I once, however, heard of a different and milder
course pursued by an elderly man, who, -being
summoned before a bench of magistrates for non-
payment of his rate, informed them that he had
bought the houses to pay him a certain percentage,
and that if he had to pay the rates his rents would not
be sufficient to realize his contemplated income. It is

30
466 THE COACHING AGE.

 

needless, perhaps, to state that the magistrates in the
discharge of their judicial duty could not adopt this
gentleman’s view of his position.

With regard to the turnpike roads, we have seen
what was done for them by such men as McAdam
and Telford, and how their scientific knowledge and
labours so much improved them that fast travelling
could take place along them, and the days of fast
coaches commenced—a thing totally impracticable
previously. .

Their reign was not very long, as the iron road
came into use with rapid strides, and in a very
summary manner abolished traffic along the high-
ways, and reduced them to such a _ condition
for want of funds arising from tolls, that, as I have
mentioned, the plan of throwing the maintenance of
them on the parishes was resorted to, with a con-
tribution from’ the Consolidated Fund towards the
expenses.

I have endeavoured to give some sketches of the
principal men connected with the business of travel-
ling, such as coach-proprietors and innkeepers, and
the mode in which their business was carried on,
and also to make some mention of other indispens-
able persons, such as their coachmen and guards.

Most of the persons and things of which I have
treated have ceased to exist, as: The mail-pro-
CONCLUSION. 467

 

prietors ; coach-proprietors ; mails; coaches; post-
chaises; post-boys; coachmen; guards;  coach-
porters ; coach-offices; coaching-stables down the
roads; turnpikes, and of course with them the
quiet and inoffensive dwellers in small roadside.
cottages, known as pike-keepers, both male and
female. All were swept away by the irresistible
march of the railways. Few, except men like
Chaplin and Horne, escaped being carried down, and
it was as one has read in an old combination of
English and dog-Latin, the author of which I
don’t know: ‘Omnes drownderunt swim away qui
non potuerunt.’ Almost all that remains now of
‘the road’ is its memory.

All these changes have taken place in little over
forty years, and supposing for a moment that railway-
travelling had never been effected, it appears difficult
to imagine how we could have got about. We are
now accustomed to take a journey of a hundred
miles in about three hours, in an enclosed carriage
protected against all weather, for the small sum of
8s. 4d.; whereas in the days of ‘the road’ it took
eleven or twelve hours or more, at an expense of
nearly a pound for the fare only, on the outside of
a coach.

Taking into consideration the people who travel
on business only, much perhaps might be transacted
468 THE COACHING AGE.

 

by correspondence which is now done by personal
interview; but then again, how would all the
letters be conveyed without the railway mail-vans ?
These are problems which, being unable to solve,
I may as well give up in despair, and bring to
a conclusion the work on ‘ the road’ by

‘Aw OLp Stacer.’

THE END.

BILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD.
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